Abstract: The invention is directed to novel reductive dehalogenase genes encoding for reductive dehalogenases, which are capable of dehalogenating halogenated organic compounds and may be useful for environmental assessment and monitoring, and in the bioremediation of pollutants. In particular, the invention provides isolated polynucleotides of novel reductive dehalogenase genes dcpA and dcpB and fragments thereof as well as isolated polypeptides encoding the DcpA and DcpB proteins or fragments thereof. The invention is also directed to methods of identifying and/or quantifying dechlorinating bacterial organisms or polynucleotides encoding a reductive dehalogenase, such as the dcpA or dcpB polynucleotides or fragments thereof, in a sample.