Delaware

Solid Waste Facilities

Agency Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control

The Compliance and Permitting Section (CAPS) of the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control (DNREC) issues permits for all solid and hazardous waste facilities, such as operating and closed landfills and transfer stations, and recycling, composting and resource recovery facilities. DNREC's Regulations Governing Solid Waste (7 DE Admin. Code 1301) require permits to operate solid waste facilities in Delaware. CAPS staff inspect facilities periodically, and DNREC says compliance inspectors are on site daily at major solid waste facilities.

In a Phase I ESA

DNREC's permitted solid waste facilities are the Delaware form of the state landfill and solid waste disposal site records that ASTM E1527-21 lists as a standard source. The general reading of a landfill listing is on the landfills and solid waste page. Three Delaware details shape the search.

The facilities page holds current permits. DNREC says it maintains information on facilities that have been granted a solid waste facility permit, and its page links the current permit documents for each facility it lists, grouped as landfills, transfer stations, resource recovery facilities, composting facilities and recycling facilities. The page does not say whether every closed landfill or older dump appears there.
A map layer shows landfills and dumps. The DNREC Well Viewer, a map-based tool built for wells, includes a dataset of solid waste landfills and dumps among its layers. Check it for a disposal area that has no permit on the facilities page.
DNREC permits but does not run landfills. DNREC says it does not provide trash collection or run landfills, and that most of the solid waste disposed of in Delaware goes to one of three landfills run by the Delaware Solid Waste Authority.

Buried land-clearing debris is a separate matter in Delaware. DNREC says that after 1968, trees and stumps cleared for land development were usually buried until that practice was prohibited in 1988, and that in areas cleared in the 1960s, 70s and 80s sinkholes have begun appearing where the wood debris was buried. See Debris Pit Remediation.

Where to look a site up

DNREC's Solid Waste Facilities page links the current permit documents for the facilities it lists, and says more information may be found on the Delaware Environmental Navigator.
The DNREC Well Viewer, searched by well permit number, address or parcel number.
The Compliance and Permitting Section is at 302-739-9403.

Getting the file

The solid waste pages do not give a records route of their own. DNREC's FOIA page says the Delaware Freedom of Information Act ensures public access to public records held by DNREC; the route is on the DNREC FOIA Requests page.

Sources

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

Solid Waste Facilities, last modified January 16, 2026.
Solid Waste, last modified April 1, 2026.
The DNREC Well Viewer, last modified December 2, 2025.
Debris Pits, last modified January 8, 2026.
DNREC FOIA Requests, last modified September 14, 2026.