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Delaware

Delaware Environmental Release Notification System (DERNS)

Agency Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control

The Delaware Environmental Release Notification System (DERNS) of the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control (DNREC) is, in DNREC's words, a notification system to alert Delawareans to releases or discharges of contaminants or pollutants that meet or exceed certain thresholds in their neighborhoods or throughout the state. DNREC also links a Recent Environmental Releases report, which it describes as the most recent environmental release reports from the system.

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. Delaware release reports still matter, because a release report can be the only record of a release that never became a cleanup case.

Four Delaware details shape how to read one.

  • Notice goes to DNREC and 911. DNREC's EPCRA Data and Information page, last modified September 14, 2022, says that under the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act (EPCRA), a facility or transporter with an emergency release of a covered chemical above its reportable quantity must give initial and follow-up notifications. The initial notification must be made immediately to the State Emergency Response Commission and the local emergency planning committee; in Delaware this is done by notifying DNREC and 911, and in most cases the National Response Center must also be notified.
  • The written follow-up is the document to get. DNREC says a written follow-up emergency notice is due as soon as practicable after the release, updating the initial notice and adding the actions taken to respond to and contain the release. It says written follow-up emergency notices are available to the public under EPCRA.
  • Delaware has its own list of reportable quantities. DNREC says that, in general, three lists of covered chemicals apply in Delaware: the federal Extremely Hazardous Substances, the hazardous substances under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA), and the Delaware Reportable Quantities in Delaware's Regulation for the Reporting of the Discharge of an Air Contaminant or Pollutant (Regulation 6028).
  • DNREC's own responders are on call. DNREC's Emergency Response Team is the state's designated first responder for environmental emergencies. The emergencies DNREC lists its response equipment for include transportation-related incidents, clandestine drug labs, residential aboveground heating oil tank releases, small mercury spills, abandoned unidentified chemical drums, and leaking underground storage tanks, commercial and residential.

To report releases of pollutants, spills, trash dumping or other issues, DNREC gives its 24-hour, toll-free complaint line, 1-800-662-8802; for incidents needing a response from its Emergency Response Team, it also gives 302-739-9401.

Where to look a site up

Getting the file

DNREC says requests for information reported by facilities under its EPCRA program, such as inventory or release reports, should be made in writing through the DNREC FOIA Coordinator. The route is on the DNREC FOIA Requests page.

Sources

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

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