Providing Access to your Property

This web page was developed to provide more information to property owners who have been contacted by, Responsible Parties (RPs) or their environmental consultant, for access to their property to conduct environmental investigations or sampling. The purpose of this webpage is to help you make an informed decision about letting someone onto your property to conduct environmental work.

Why is access to my property needed?

Nearby environmental contamination can impact you and your family. Leaking underground storage tanks, and other types of spills to the ground or direct discharges, can result in contamination of soil and ground water.

DEP requires RPs to:

  1. Determine the extent of contamination
  2. To mitigate (protect) property owners and tenants that may be exposed to contamination
  3. To clean up contamination

Contamination can migrate from the place they were discharged to other properties, contaminating private drinking water wells, as well as compromising indoor air. Levels in drinking water and indoor air can exceed those that are protective of human health. Usually, this contamination cannot be seen, tasted, or smelled, and require sampling and chemical analysis to be measured.

If a RP believes that contamination has migrated from their site onto your property, DEP requires them to request access to your property to conduct an environmental investigation to determine whether the contamination is affecting the building occupants. The kind of environmental investigation depends on the contaminated media and the exposure pathway that is being investigating.

Publicly funded remediation

DEP staff may contact you directly when a contaminated site is being investigated using public money. Public money is used when no viable responsible party has been identified. DEP will take similar steps as a responsible party would to determine the extent of contamination and to mitigate (protect) property owners and tenant that may be exposed to contamination.

What to expect

You may receive a letter from a RP, or their environmental consultant, requesting access to your property to conduct an environmental investigation. DEP requires that investigations be overseen by a Licensed Site Remediation Professional (LSRP). You can confirm if an LSRP is licensed by visiting: DEP DataMiner

Along with this letter, you may receive a questionnaire or form asking for information about your drinking water well or structures on your property.

Once you agree to allow the environmental consultant access to your property, it is likely that you will asked to sign an access agreement with the responsible party.

The environmental consultant hired by the RP will call to schedule a time to come to your property. DEP requires that investigations be overseen by a Licensed Site Remediation Professional (LSRP). You can confirm if an LSRP is licensed by visiting: DEP DataMiner

You can check to confirm that the contaminated site that the RP is investigating is on the DEP’s Known Contaminated Sites list.

Check the identification of anyone asking for access to your home.

The environmental consultant will collect environmental samples at no cost to you and the results will be provided to you.

  • If there is near by ground water contamination and the surrounding community uses well for drinking water, access to your property may be required to conduct potable well sampling. Water samples from your private potable water well, or
  • if there is near by ground water contamination, access to your property may be required to conduct vapor intrusion sampling. Vapor intrusion occurs when fumes from organic contaminants in ground water migrate into overlying buildings, affecting the quality of indoor air. The environmental consultants may collect sub-slab soil gas samples, which involves drilling a small hold (1/2 in in diameter) through the slab of your living space. They may also set up indoor air monitoring equipment inside (and outside) your home. Learn more about Vapor Intrusion
  • If the responsible party only needs to determine the extent of contamination, the environmental consultant may not need to go into any buildings, but will only request access to your yard.

They will analyze the environmental samples and provide a summary of results to you, DEP, and your local health department.

If there is a problem, the responsible party will request access to your property again to install a treatment system – at no cost to you. The treatment system will lower environmental contaminants to a level that is protective of human health.

  • The responsible party may need to access your property periodically to service the water treatment or vapor intrusion system.

If you do not respond, the responsible party may try to contact you through your municipality (local health department, or other local official). Also, if you do not respond, the State Law requires the responsible party to sue you to gain access to your property. Nobody wants to do this.

What are your options?
  • You can say no, but…
  • You should say yes – it is important to make sure you and your family is protected from environmental contaminants caused by illegal discharges to the environment, and it is important that responsible parties be able to cleanup contamination for which they are responsible.
  • Before making a decision, call the RP or consultant for more information.
  • You can also call and discuss with your local health department.
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