Florida Institutional Controls Registry (ICR)

The Institutional Controls Registry is kept by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (DEP). DEP describes it as providing information on properties with recorded institutional controls, and describes its open data as covering conditionally closed contaminated sites. Where institutional or engineering controls are needed to restrict exposure to groundwater or soil contamination left on a site after closure, DEP says those controls must be registered in it.

In a Phase I ESA

The registry is the Florida form of the state institutional control and engineering control registries that ASTM E1527-21 lists as a standard source. The general reading of a control listing is on the State/Tribal Institutional and Engineering Control Registries page.

• Engineering controls are in it. The last step of DEP's engineering control process is to include the control as a restriction in a Declaration of Restrictive Covenant and in the registry, with a GIS shapefile. An engineering control also needs a maintenance plan that identifies each control, the maintenance expected and an inspection checklist. Ask for that plan.
• Not every control is a recorded covenant. DEP's guidance has sections on institutional controls other than restrictive covenants, and on a completion order with conditions that uses non-recorded controls. Check the registry as well as the title record.
• The registry lists a contact for each of several programs. The registry's contact list names federal facilities cleanup, brownfields, waste cleanup, RCRA, petroleum and the districts. Ask the contact for the program that closed the site.
• Roads have their own arrangement. The registry page links a memorandum of understanding between DEP and the Florida Department of Transportation for petroleum discharges in the transportation department's right of way, and a document on institutional controls for local government transportation facilities.
• Controls can change. DEP's guidance has sections on enforcing a control, on amending and removing one, and on certifying restricted activities at conditionally closed cleanup sites after the order is issued. Ask whether a control has been amended and whether certifications are on file.
• The guidance is revised often. DEP says the guidance is updated frequently and asks users to work from the web page, not a saved copy. Each section and attachment carries its own version date.

DEP's Division of Waste Management contamination report has a status of Closed with Conditions, which DEP defines as a site where cleanup has been completed with restrictions added on the land use. A site with that status is one to look for in the registry. The closure terms are on the Contaminated Site Cleanup Criteria page.

Where to look a site up

• DEP's Map Direct layer with an ICR focus, which DEP says depicts sites included in the registry.
• The ICR Open Data Portal, which DEP says provides mapping and downloadable data of conditionally closed contaminated sites.
• DEP's Institutional Controls Registry & Guidance page, with the contact list by program area.
• The Institutional Controls Procedures Guidance, with every section and attachment.

Getting the file

DEP's guidance has a section on recording restrictive covenants in the public record, so ask for the recorded instrument as well as the DEP order. DEP's OCULUS document system gives access to public records associated with permitted facilities and activities. Documents are filed under a DEP program and facility, so have the facility or site name or the facility identification number. For a paper records search, DEP says to contact the district office's Public Records Coordinator or the Office of Ombudsman and Public Services (Public.services@FloridaDEP.gov, 850-245-2118). The routes and fees are on the Public records and OCULUS page.

Sources

Florida Department of Environmental Protection pages, read October 6, 2026:

• Institutional Controls Registry & Guidance, last modified July 9, 2025.
• Institutional Controls Procedures Guidance, last modified March 12, 2026.
• Documents and Reports for Contaminated Sites, last modified August 5, 2025.
• Petroleum Restoration Program, no modified date shown.
• DWM Contamination Report, last modified December 1, 2025.
• Public Records, last modified October 2, 2026.