Tennessee RCRA Corrective Action

RCRA Corrective Action is the program under which the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation (TDEC) oversees the investigation and cleanup of contamination at hazardous waste facilities. TDEC says Tennessee was authorized by EPA to oversee its own Corrective Action program in 2000, and that the program's sites include many with risks comparable to Superfund sites.

In a Phase I ESA

This is the Tennessee record of cleanups at hazardous waste facilities. It sits beside the federal corrective action records described on the RCRA CORRACTS page. ASTM E1527-21 lists state hazardous waste facility records among its standard sources. This handbook does not pair a single Tennessee list with that type; this is one of the Tennessee records that bear on it. The distances the standard sets for each kind of record are on the search distances page.

• These are industrial sites. TDEC says Corrective Action facilities include many current and former chemical manufacturing plants, oil refineries, lead smelters, wood preservers, steel mills and commercial landfills. It says that because of poor practices before environmental regulation, they have contaminated the area comprising the facility so that a more comprehensive cleanup is required.
• The remedy assumes a use. TDEC says state regulators design cleanup remedies based on the contamination, geology and anticipated use unique to each site. Read what use the remedy assumed, and compare it with the use now planned.
• It is a different branch from the cleanup site list. Corrective Action belongs to the Hazardous Waste Management Program of the Waste Management Branch. TDEC describes the Remediation Branch's Site Viewer as a list of that branch's sites, so do not rely on it for these facilities.
• The work can sit under a permit or an order. TDEC's hazardous waste fee rules refer to facilities conducting corrective action and post-closure under permits, orders or other enforceable documents. Ask which document governs the facility. Permits are on the Hazardous Waste Management Permits page.

What the record shows

TDEC says owners and operators are required to provide information regarding the placement of hazardous waste and any resultant releases, and that this information is used as part of the corrective action process. The regulations are designed to prevent or remediate releases from land-based solid waste management units, which TDEC shortens to SWMUs. Ask for what the facility reported about its units and their releases.

The program's stated goals are the same for all sites: to protect human health and the environment, and to keep or return land to productive use.

Where to look a site up

The pages read name no TDEC list of Corrective Action facilities. Start with the federal records described on the RCRA CORRACTS page, then ask TDEC for the state file.

Getting the file

The Division of Land Protection's Waste Management Branch is at 615-532-0780 and Solid.Waste@tn.gov. TDEC's Public Records Request page carries the department's records request route.

Sources

Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation pages, read October 7, 2026:

• RCRA Corrective Action, last modified April 30, 2026.
• Tennessee Hazardous Waste Management, last modified September 23, 2026.
• Hazardous Waste Permit, last modified April 28, 2026.
• Record Requests and Data Viewers- TDEC Division of Remediation, last modified July 1, 2026.
• Tennessee Waste Management Branch, last modified September 23, 2026.
• Public Records Request, last modified November 3, 2025.