DENR and the Cleaner

There are an estimated 2000 active and abandoned dry-cleaning sites in North Carolina. At many of these sites, the groundwater is contaminated with the solvents used in the cleaning process. In 1997, the North Carolina Legislature enacted a statute to address this contamination. The Dry-Cleaning Solvent Cleanup Act is designed to provide a fund, administered by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, to assess and clean contaminated dry-cleaning sites using state-lead contractors. The source for the cleanup fund is a tax on dry-cleaning and dry-cleaning solvents (both perchloroethylene and petroleum-based solvents).