Wisconsin

Dry Cleaner Environmental Response Fund (DERF)

Agency Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources

The Dry Cleaner Environmental Response Fund (DERF) repays eligible dry cleaners for the cost of investigating and cleaning up contamination from dry cleaning solvents. The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) runs it through two bureaus, Remediation and Redevelopment and Community Financial Assistance. The fund was created in the 1997 to 1999 state budget, took effect on October 14, 1997, and is paid for by a license fee on dry cleaners and a fee on solvent sales. DNR says it stopped taking new applicants on August 30, 2008. The statute is Wis. Stat. § 292.65 and the rule is ch. NR 169, Wis. Adm. Code.

In a Phase I ESA

ASTM E1527-21 does not name state dry cleaner fund records among its standard record sources. DNR's dry cleaning page explains why they matter: dry cleaners used trichloroethene (TCE) before the 1940s and perchloroethylene (PCE) from the Second World War into the 2000s, and soil, groundwater and sewers at old dry cleaners may have been contaminated by waste put into sewers, spilled or dumped on site. DNR notes that many former dry cleaner properties have since been redeveloped with that contamination still in the ground, and that vapors from it can enter buildings.

Three details shape the search.

The fund's site list is closed. DNR closed the fund to new applicants on August 30, 2008, and its chart of eligible sites covers the sites whose Potential Claim Notification was in by that deadline. A dry cleaner that never filed one will not be on it.
A DERF site shows on the map. The RR Sites Map has a DERF layer for sites where DNR repaid assessment and cleanup work at a dry cleaning facility.
Licensing is another agency's subject. DNR's pages send readers to the Department of Revenue's website for dry cleaner licensing requirements. This handbook does not read that department's pages.

DNR says it set up an internal team in the 1990s to help with dry cleaner cleanups; its Dry Cleaning and Vapor Intrusion Team (DVIT) now offers training and resources. For vapor guidance, DNR's dry cleaning page points to its Vapor Intrusion for Environmental Professionals page.

What the fund's records show

DNR's DERF page posts its program statistics as PDF files, each with the date DNR gives for its last update. This handbook did not open them.

Status of DERF Eligible Sites, updated 8/4/2026.
Payments by Site, updated 3/4/2026.
Reimbursement Requests Pending, updated 5/8/2026.

Reimbursement runs on milestones. DNR says a site investigation request must be at least $15,000, with limits on how many may be filed each fiscal year, and that the final remedial action request is due within 120 days after the remedial action is finished. DNR's fees page says submittals for DERF-eligible sites are usually not charged a technical assistance fee, except when the reimbursement cap has been reached, when insurance pays for the work, or when the case is under enforcement.

Where to look a site up

The Status of DERF Eligible Sites and Payments by Site files above, linked from DNR's DERF page.
The DERF layer on the RR Sites Map. See RR Sites Map.
BRRTS on the Web, which can limit a search by financial assistance tool; the BRRTS page does not list the tools.

Getting the file

DNR's dry cleaning page sends questions about a facility or a cleanup to the regional RR project manager, found through DNR's staff directory, and the DERF page names a grant manager for fund questions. The pages read give no separate route for a DERF file. DNR prefers records requests by email, to DNRRecordsResponse@wisconsin.gov, and accepts them in any format; see Public Records Request.

Sources

Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources pages, read October 13, 2026, no modified date shown: