Voluntary Cleanup Program (VCP)

Utah's Voluntary Cleanup Program (VCP) is run by the CERCLA Branch within the Utah Department of Environmental Quality's (DEQ's) Division of Environmental Response and Remediation (DERR). DEQ's page says the program was set up to encourage the voluntary cleanup of contaminated sites, and is meant to help brownfields and other affected sites toward redevelopment through a simplified cleanup process. DERR's map terminology page calls it the Voluntary Release Cleanup Program, and DERR's brownfields page names the Voluntary Release Cleanup Act among the laws behind its brownfields work.

In a Phase I ESA

VCP sites are the Utah 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. The program page links documents it labels as sites rather than a list described in its text, so the pairing is the handbook's reading of those labels.

Four Utah details shape how to read one.

• Sites and completions are linked apart. Under a heading for sites, the VCP page links documents it labels Voluntary Cleanup Sites and Response Action Sites. Under a heading for completions, it links Sites with a Certificate of Completion and Sites with an Environmental Covenant. This handbook did not open them, and the pages read do not say what a response action site is. Check whether a site in the program also appears among the completions.
• The page carries an archive note. Just under its opening paragraph, the VCP page carries a note marking what follows as archived and kept for reference, research or recordkeeping. The four documents above sit below that note.
• A cleanup can include a covenant. DERR says a cleanup of contaminated property may include an environmental covenant, which may also go by the name of an institutional control, a land use control or another term, under Utah's Uniform Environmental Covenants Act (Utah Code 57-25-101 and following). See Environmental Covenants.
• Report guidance. The VCP page links guidance for a site characterization work plan, a site characterization report, a remedial action plan and a remedial action report.

DERR's CERCLA Branch counts the VCP, Enforceable Written Assurances and EPA brownfields grants among the tools its voluntary cleanup and brownfields programs use; see Enforceable Written Assurances (EWA) and the Brownfields Program. For screening values, the VCP page links the Division of Water Quality's ground water protection standards and EPA's Regional Screening Levels, drinking water maximum contaminant levels and vapor intrusion screening calculator.

A second voluntary route is run by a different division: the Division of Waste Management and Radiation Control's Environmental Cleanup Program, for property affected by hazardous waste operations, on the Hazardous Waste Cleanup Program (HWCP) page.

Where to look a site up

• The VCP page's Voluntary Cleanup Sites, Response Action Sites, Sites with a Certificate of Completion and Sites with an Environmental Covenant.
• DEQ's Interactive Map. DERR's map terminology page lists VCP Sites among the map's terms.
• DERR's VCP/Brownfields Program Coordinator, at (801) 536-4100, takes questions and sets up pre-application meetings.

Getting the file

DERR takes records requests on DEQ's GRAMA request form at errgrama@utah.gov or (801) 536-4157, and files are viewed by appointment. The routes are on the GRAMA requests page.

Sources

Utah Department of Environmental Quality pages, read October 13, 2026:

• Voluntary Cleanup Program, last modified April 22, 2026.
• CERCLA Branch, last modified September 8, 2026.
• Environmental Covenants, last modified April 15, 2026.
• Brownfields Program, last modified May 7, 2026.
• Interactive Map Terminology DERR, last modified May 15, 2026.
• Hazardous Waste Cleanup Program, last modified April 16, 2026.
• Environmental Quality Records Request (GRAMA), last modified April 21, 2026.