Texas Voluntary Cleanup Program (VCP)

The Texas Voluntary Cleanup Program is run by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ). A party applies, agrees to a schedule and to pay TCEQ's oversight costs, and cleans the site up under TCEQ review. When the cleanup standard is met, TCEQ issues a certificate of completion that releases all non-responsible parties, including future owners and lenders, from liability to the state for cleanup of the areas the certificate covers.

In a Phase I ESA

VCP sites are the Texas form of the state voluntary cleanup records that ASTM E1527-21 lists as a standard source. The general reading of a voluntary cleanup listing is on the VCP page. Three Texas details shape how to read one.

• An application is not a cleanup. TCEQ says a party may end its participation at any time by written notice. Through August 2024 the program had received over 3,300 applications and issued over 2,800 certificates of completion. Check whether the site has a certificate before treating it as finished, and which kind. TCEQ issues conditional and final certificates. A conditional certificate means long-term response actions, such as engineering controls, remediation systems or institutional controls, are still being carried out.
• The certificate covers stated areas. The release from liability applies to the areas covered by the certificate. Compare that area with the property in front of you.
• The file can hold earlier reports. An applicant submits any previously prepared reports for the site with the application, so the VCP file can hold earlier assessments as well as the cleanup record.

TCEQ describes the VCP as a brownfields program, meant for sites where real or perceived contamination gets in the way of a sale or redevelopment. The applicants it names include dry cleaners, manufacturing facilities, shopping centers, warehouses and auto-related businesses.

The program's authority is in Texas Health and Safety Code Chapter 361 and 30 Texas Administrative Code Chapter 333. TCEQ lists the Texas Risk Reduction Program rule, 30 Texas Administrative Code Chapter 350, with the program's legal authority.

Where to look a site up

• TCEQ publishes a VCP general site information spreadsheet on its Voluntary Cleanup Program page. TCEQ says it holds general and historical information on sites that have taken part and is updated at least twice a year.
• For current detail on one site, TCEQ points to its Central Registry query.
• TCEQ's Remediation Documents Search Portal shows receipt and submittal data for the last five years of incoming and outgoing documents for the VCP and four other cleanup programs.
• Questions go to vcp@tceq.texas.gov.

Getting the file

TCEQ offers three routes to its records: TCEQ Records Online for records already scanned, an email to the Central File Room (cfrreq@tceq.texas.gov) to view or copy paper and microform records, and a Public Information Request for records that are not available through the file room or that contain confidential information.

Sources

Texas Commission on Environmental Quality pages, read September 30, 2026:

• Voluntary Cleanup Program, last modified March 24, 2026.
• Remediation Program Descriptions, last modified July 17, 2026.
• Remediation: Cleaning up Contaminated Sites, last modified March 18, 2026.
• Access Records from our Central File Room, last modified July 17, 2026.