Site Assessment and Cleanup

Overview and Organization

The Site Cleanup Program (SCP) regulates and oversees the investigation and cleanup of contaminated sites that are polluting, or threaten to pollute, surface and/or groundwater. In the Central Valley Region, there are over 29 technical and administrative staff overseeing investigation and cleanup actions at sites that have been impacted by releases of pollutants to soil, soil gas, groundwater, surface water, sediments and indoor air. SCP sites include pollution from recent or historical surface and subsurface releases at large industrial facilities, military bases, railyards, and oil refineries. SCP sites also include smaller facilities such as dry cleaners, plating shops, pesticide distribution facilities, and equipment repair facilities.

GeoTracker Database (site specific documents and geographic information)

The GeoTracker on-line database can be found at: https://geotracker.waterboards.ca.gov.
GeoTracker is an internet-based database and geographic information system (GIS) that stores site specific information for cleanup sites that are regulated by the Regional Water Boards. The GeoTracker database also stores information for cleanup sites that are overseen by cities, counties, and other health agencies in the State. GeoTracker provides public access to environmental data for cleanup sites, underground and above ground tank sites, landfills and mine sites. GeoTracker contains soil and groundwater results, boring logs, site maps, monitoring and assessment reports, letters, responses, closure justifications and other documents related to cases in these programs. It should be noted that many site investigation and remediation documents that were generated prior to the year 2000 may not be available on GeoTracker. Water Board staff are working diligently to get these documents scanned and uploaded as soon as possible. There may also be some cases that are not in GeoTracker because of database compatibility issues. In this case we recommend that you contact the appropriate office using the contact information below. Key sites in the Central Valley Region include, but are not limited to the following:

To access these cases, click on the site name shown above and you will be redirected to the site-specific database for that site. For all other cases you will need to click on the GeoTracker.waterboards.ca.gov link provided above, and search by street name and/or city, being as general as possible. This will enable GeoTracker to present a map of many sites meeting your address criteria, from there click on the box representing site that you are interested in. The advanced search tool can also be used to display the site(s) of interest. Simply use a search criterion such as global identification, site/facility name, address, city, zip code, county, site/facility type, cleanup status, or Regional Board office to identify your site.

In addition to GeoTracker, the California Department of Toxic Substances Control has a similar on-line database, called “Envirostor”. The Envirostor database can also be accessed to view cleanup sites; the Envirostor database contains sites that are primarily overseen by DTSC and can be found at:

Types of Pollutants Encountered at Typical Cleanup Sites

The types of pollutants encountered at the Site Cleanup Program sites are quite diverse and may include fertilizers, fuels, heavy metals, perchlorate, solvents, radiological material and many others (see below).

Additional information on this topic can be found at the following website: www.waterboards.ca.gov/water_issues/programs/scp/.
Contaminant Types Pie Chart

How to Contact Us

Program Fact Sheets