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Delaware environmental records for a Phase I ESA

17Program pages

Delaware programs

Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control 17

Every Delaware program in this handbook belongs to one agency, the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control (DNREC). Its Division of Waste and Hazardous Substances runs most of them. DNREC says that division leads investigation and cleanup of contaminated sites, regulates the installation, operation, removal and remediation of tanks storing petroleum and hazardous substances, ensures compliance with waste and hazardous substance management laws, and provides 24-hour response to environmental and hazardous materials incidents. Well permits are Division of Water permits. This page maps each kind of record ASTM E1527-21 asks for to the Delaware program behind it, and links a page on each program.

The standard record types, in Delaware

ASTM record type Delaware program Agency
State Superfund equivalent HSCA State Lead and Enforcement Programs. The pages read link no list of the sites; the pairing is the handbook's reading. DNREC
State hazardous waste facilities No single Delaware list is paired here. The Delaware records that bear on it are Hazardous Waste Corrective Action and Hazardous Waste Notification and Reporting. DNREC
Landfills and solid waste sites Solid Waste Facilities DNREC
Leaking storage tanks Storage Tank Corrective Action Program DNREC
Registered storage tanks Underground storage tank (UST) compliance program and Aboveground storage tank (AST) program DNREC
Institutional and engineering controls No single Delaware list is paired here. The pages read name no registry of controls. The nearest page is Long-Term Stewardship (LTS): DNREC's Remediation Section recognizes institutional controls that have been recorded in an environmental covenant. DNREC
Voluntary cleanup sites Voluntary Cleanup Program (VCP). The pages read link no list of VCP sites; the pairing is the handbook's reading. DNREC
Brownfields sites Brownfields Development Program, whose Certified Brownfields List DNREC links on the Delaware Open Data Portal. See also the Brownfields Marketplace. DNREC

How far each search reaches is on the ASTM search distances page.

Other Delaware records worth reading

These are not paired with a record type in the table above, but each answers a question a Delaware Phase I runs into.

Which section handles what, and where EPA leads

Within the Division of Waste and Hazardous Substances, the work is split by section. The Remediation Section is the contact for the Hazardous Substance Cleanup Act (HSCA) programs, brownfields, voluntary cleanup and long-term stewardship, and it administers the Storage Tank Corrective Action and Hazardous Waste Corrective Action programs. Its page, last modified September 1, 2026, says over 1,100 hazardous substance release sites are managed by the section. For information about underground and aboveground storage tanks, DNREC sends readers to Tanks Compliance. The Compliance and Permitting Section issues the permits for solid and hazardous waste facilities. The Emergency Response and Strategic Services Section holds both the EPCRA Reporting Program, which collects information on the storage, use and release of hazardous chemicals, and the Emergency Response Branch.

DNREC's Federal Programs page says EPA is the lead regulatory agency on National Priorities List sites, which EPA carries out with DNREC involvement and assistance. It says Preliminary Assessments and Site Inspections under EPA's Superfund program examine all locations reported to DNREC as potential hazardous substance release sites. The same page, last modified November 16, 2020, says there have been approximately 38 designated Formerly Used Defense Sites properties in Delaware, and that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has program management and execution responsibility for them.

One search across DNREC's programs

DNREC describes the Delaware Environmental Navigator (DEN) as a database of core environmental data and permitting and enforcement information that allows search by location, permit type and more. Its online applications page links searches of the Navigator by facility, by program and by permit. DNREC's tank pages send readers to DEN for tank facilities and for release sites, its solid waste facilities page sends readers there for more on permitted facilities, and its Tank Management Documents page says select scanned facility files are available through it.

Three more tools reach across programs.

  • The DNREC Well Viewer finds DNREC permits and remediation projects near a well, searched by well permit number, address or parcel number. Its datasets include groundwater management zones, brownfields, underground storage tanks, site remediation projects, and solid waste landfills and dumps.
  • DNREC posts datasets on the Delaware Open Data Portal, among them underground storage tanks, aboveground storage tanks, certified brownfield sites and well permits.
  • DNREC describes its Environmental Enforcement Actions search as a searchable listing of all environmental enforcement actions.

Getting a file from DNREC

A listing says a record exists. The reports and letters are in the file. DNREC's FOIA page says the Delaware Freedom of Information Act (29 Del. Code, Chapter 100) ensures that the public has easy access to public records held by DNREC, and that requests go through the state's online Freedom of Information Act Form to the DNREC FOIA Coordinator. The page gives the coordinator's mailbox, DNREC_FOIA_Request@delaware.gov, and DNREC's contacts page lists FOIA Requests at 302-739-9034. The route is set out on the DNREC FOIA Requests page.

  • The Delaware Department of Justice's manual for FOIA coordinators says the Act gives Delaware citizens access to public records, and that a public body may grant a non-citizen's request but may also deny it for that reason alone. Its open government page says a public body must respond as soon as possible and within 15 business days, though the response may instead cite voluminous records, legal advice or storage and give a good faith estimate of when records will come.
  • DNREC's tank pages say a request for information about tank facilities and release sites may be made through FOIA.
  • DNREC's EPCRA pages say requests for information reported under EPCRA, such as inventory or release reports, should be made in writing through the FOIA Coordinator.
  • DNREC says it tries to make as much public information as possible available online, but that FOIA requests are sometimes required. It also says a FOIA request, and any documents attached to it, may itself be deemed a public record subject to disclosure.

DNREC's pages read do not give fees or response times for a request.

Environmental complaints and emergencies are reported to DNREC's 24-hour line, 800-662-8802.

Sources

Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control pages, read October 13, 2026:

Delaware Department of Justice pages, read October 13, 2026:

Maintained by Barrow. General reference only, not legal or professional advice. Barrow is not affiliated with any government agency, and neither Barrow nor the information as presented here is endorsed by any state or government agency. See how Barrow drafts the report