Tennessee Clean (TN Clean)

Tennessee Clean (TN Clean) is a state-funded initiative of the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation (TDEC), managed by its Remediation Branch, to remediate sites that are not on the National Priorities List and are on what TDEC calls the Tennessee GASB 49 list. TDEC says the State is obligated to fund investigation and cleanup of existing pollution on these sites.

In a Phase I ESA

ASTM E1527-21 does not name a state-funded cleanup list among its standard record sources. A TN Clean site is worth knowing for what the listing says about who is paying and how far the work has gone.

• The State carries these sites. TDEC says the State of Tennessee has inherited responsibility for them, and that until recently many had no remaining funding for cleanup. TDEC says funding for the State to investigate and remediate them began to be set aside in 2022.
• They are old industrial sites. TDEC says the sites on the list were former industrial facilities such as dry cleaners, metals smelters, automobile recyclers and assembly plants, and that many have languished for years and remain unsuitable for redevelopment.
• Not every site is a Remediation Branch site. TDEC says most TN Clean sites are managed by the Remediation Branch, several belong to the Division of Solid Waste Management, and one falls under the Division of Radiological Health. Ask which division has the file before requesting it.
• Listing is not a status. The page's write-ups describe sites at different stages of investigation, cleanup and monitoring. Read the entry for the site, then the file, before describing where the work stands.

The pages read do not define the Tennessee GASB 49 list or say how a site is added to TN Clean.

What the record shows

TDEC's page lists the current TN Clean sites under East, Middle and West Tennessee, grouped by the division that has each one. Entries give the site's city and county, and most give a short history: what operated there, what contamination was found, what removals or other work have been done, and what TDEC is doing now.

Two terms in those write-ups appear on other pages here. One entry speaks of a site "promulgated as a State Superfund site"; the promulgated list is on the List of Inactive Hazardous Substance Sites page. Another spells out NLUR as Notice of Land Use Restriction, covered on the Notice of Land Use Restriction page.

Where to look a site up

• The site list and write-ups are on TDEC's Tennessee Clean page, which also links a StoryMap describing the program.
• The Remediation Branch's Site Viewer and Map Viewer are described on the Division of Remediation sites page.

Getting the file

The Remediation Branch says to request specific site files with TDEC's Public Records Request form. Its central office is at (615) 532-0900. For a site that belongs to the waste side of the Division of Land Protection, the Waste Management Branch is at 615-532-0780 and Solid.Waste@tn.gov.

Sources

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

• Tennessee Clean (TN Clean), last modified July 1, 2026.
• TDEC Division of Land Protection - Remediation Branch, last modified September 23, 2026.
• Contact TDEC Division of Remediation, last modified July 10, 2026.
• Tennessee Waste Management Branch, last modified September 23, 2026.
• Public Records Request, last modified November 3, 2025.