Environmental Quality Records Center (File Room)

The Environmental Quality Records Center, which the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP) also calls its File Room, holds DEEP's files and is DEEP's route to files that are not in its online portals. DEEP's page for it carries a footer reading "Content Last Updated July 2024", and no machine-readable modified date. Hours, fees and procedures below are as that page printed them then, so confirm them before a trip.

In a Phase I ESA

A listing says a record exists; the reports and letters are in the file. For Connecticut programs not yet scanned, the Records Center is where DEEP's pages place the file. DEEP's page includes this note: "The presence or absence of Information in the Department’s files is not a guarantee of the presence or absence of environmental problems or violations at a site or facility." Four details help plan a request.

• Files are dated by program. DEEP's table gives the earliest year of files stored in the file room for most file types. Examples: oil and chemical spill incident reports and correspondence from 1972; RCRA facility permits from 1985; solid waste landfill and volume reduction plant files from 1960; underground storage tank inspection reports and notification forms from 1986; and, in the Remediation Division, Superfund (State and Federal) from 1985, property transfers from 1986 and urban site remediation from 1992. The page says some units have older files, generally before 1990, stored off-site, and that access to them may be arranged through the appropriate bureau representative.
• Remediation files have moved. DEEP's Remediation Division Documents page, last modified March 18, 2026, says all Remediation Division files were removed from the file room and scanned into the DEEP Online Document Search Portal, and that files for other programs, such as hazardous waste and solid waste management, remain in the Records Center.
• Aerial photographs are not kept here. DEEP says aerial photos are no longer available at DEEP and can be reviewed at the Connecticut State Library, and that published geological maps are at the Connecticut Geological Survey.
• Some files are marked confidential. DEEP says that if a requested document has a confidential designation or claim, file room staff will assist further.

How to arrange a visit

• DEEP says appointments are booked online, which it says guarantees a place in line, and that a File Request Form must be emailed to DEEP.RecordsCenter@ct.gov at least 24 hours before the appointment so staff can prepare the files or provide them electronically as much as possible. Requests are filled in the order received.
• DEEP gives the hours as Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, 9:00 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. and 1:00 p.m. to 2:30 p.m., with public access closing at 4:00 p.m. It says files are not pulled between 11:30 a.m. and 1:00 p.m. or after 2:30 p.m.
• A Request for File Review form is completed to get any file. Files are reviewed in the file review area and may not be removed. DEEP says fees for its two card-operated copiers and for hand-held scanning devices, including cell phones, were being waived, and that certified copies cost $1.00 for the first page and $.50 for each additional page, made by the records center attendant.

Where to look a site up

• The DEEP Document Online Search Portal holds, DEEP says, hazardous waste manifests, spill reports and associated documents, and remediation documents. DEEP links a video on getting started with it, recorded May 2024.
• Connecticut's open data platform holds datasets from DEEP databases, which DEEP says are useful for finding a case number or an address before searching the portal. Those named on the page include spill incident datasets, hazardous waste manifest datasets, registered underground storage tanks, leaking underground storage tanks and a Toxics Release Inventory facility list by year.
• Several lists are set out in the file review area, among them a Property Transfer List, a Superfund Sites list, a List of Contaminated or Potentially Contaminated Sites, an Underground Storage Tank Registration List, a Leaking Underground Storage Tank List, a Hazardous Waste Notifiers List and a Hazardous Waste Sites list. The pages read do not say what each contains.

Sources

Department of Energy and Environmental Protection pages, read October 8, 2026:

• Environmental Quality Records Records Center File Room, no modified date shown; the page's footer reads "Content Last Updated July 2024".
• Remediation Division Files, last modified March 18, 2026.