Colorado

Environmental spill and release reporting

Agency Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment

Colorado environmental spill and release reporting

Spills and releases in Colorado are reported to the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) on one line, 1-877-518-5608, or on an online form when the incident is not urgent. CDPHE says it helps coordinate responses to incidents such as environmental spills, sanitary sewer overflows, and chemical or hazardous releases to air, waterways, storm drains or the ground, and that in many such cases it generates a report.

In a Phase I ESA

ASTM E1527-21 does not name state spill lists among its standard record sources. The federal counterpart of a state spill list is the emergency response record described on the ERNS page. Colorado's records still matter, because a spill report can be the only record of a release that never became a cleanup case. Five details shape the search.

One number, several names. CDPHE's pages call the same number the Incident Reporting Line, the Incident Reporting Hotline and the Reportable Environmental Hazards Line, and its cleanup guidance page links the reporting page as the environmental spill and release reporting line. A reference to any of them in a file is a reference to this line.
What makes a spill reportable. CDPHE says a spill is generally reportable if it threatens human health, reaches waterways or storm drains, impacts the environment, or exceeds established federal or state reportable quantities, and that the details are in the reporting form. It links a document on mandatory reporting requirements and a spill reporting brochure.
The online form can satisfy a reporting duty. CDPHE says the Environmental Reporting Form is for any type of hazardous materials or waste spill or release, and can be used to satisfy federal or state reporting requirements.
Water quality spills have a five-day report form. CDPHE says water quality spills should be reported to the line within 24 hours of discovery, and it links a five-day spill report as an online form and as a download. The five-day report is the document to ask for.
Tank owners report twice. The Division of Oil and Public Safety tells petroleum tank owners to call CDPHE's line as well if fuel enters a storm drain or surface water, and says it will not report the release to CDPHE for them. Such a release can have a record at each agency; see petroleum release events.

CDPHE gives a separate number for a radioactive materials incident, 303-877-9757.

Where to look a site up

CDPHE's Report a concern or emergency page links water quality spill report files in its records system, grouped by year: 2011 and earlier, then two-year groups from 2012 through 2021. The page read links no later group.
The pages read name no other public search of incident reports.

Getting the file

For water quality spill records, CDPHE's Water Quality Control Division has its own records center, at 303-692-3565 and cdphe.wqrecordscenter@state.co.us. It takes requests by mail, fax or email.
For hazardous materials and waste records, requests go through the form on the records review page or to cdphe_cora_hmwmd@state.co.us.
CDPHE says each division maintains separate records, so an incident that touched more than one program may need more than one request. Its Public records page lists the route for each division.

Sources

Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment pages, read October 7, 2026, no modified date shown:

Colorado Department of Labor and Employment, Division of Oil and Public Safety pages, read October 7, 2026, no modified date shown:

Petroleum