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Iowa

Leaking Underground Storage Tank (LUST) sites

Agency Iowa Department of Natural Resources
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The Leaking Underground Storage Tank (LUST) team of the Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR) oversees the assessment and cleanup of releases from petroleum underground storage tanks. DNR says investigation and remediation are based on Iowa's risk-based corrective action rules and model.

In a Phase I ESA

LUST sites are the Iowa form of the state leaking storage tank records that ASTM E1527-21 lists as a standard source. The general reading of a leaking tank listing is on the LUST page. What is particular to Iowa is how a release is reported and how the cleanup is decided.

How a release is reported

  • Iowa law requires owners and operators of UST systems to report a confirmed or suspected release of regulated substances, which include petroleum, to DNR within 24 hours, or within 6 hours if a hazardous condition exists, at the 24-hour hotline, 515-725-8694.
  • Evidence of contamination found during a tank closure must be reported within 24 hours, or 6 hours if a hazardous condition exists.
  • Releases of petroleum from non-regulated sources, such as heating oil tanks, aboveground storage tanks, and farm and residential tanks, must also be reported to DNR within 6 hours if a hazardous condition exists.

How the cleanup is decided

DNR assesses LUST sites by risk-based corrective action (RBCA), which it describes as a progressively more site-specific, three-tiered approach to the risks contamination poses to human health, safety and the environment. All proposed corrective actions must be submitted and supervised by a certified groundwater professional.

  • Tier 1 uses limited site data and conservative assumptions to determine whether a site poses an unreasonable risk. The Tier 1 Report must now be completed on DNR Form 542-0165.
  • Tier 2 collects more site-specific data and uses fate and transport modeling to determine which actual and potential receptors could be impacted. DNR requires a Tier 2 assessment and a Site Cleanup Report when free phase petroleum product is present, when the owner decides to bypass Tier 1, when a pathway has failed Tier 1, when bedrock was met before groundwater during drilling, or when explosive vapor levels were measured.
  • Monitoring is reported in Site Monitoring Reports. New and revised Tier 2 Site Cleanup Reports and Site Monitoring Reports go through DNR's web-based RBCA application, except at non-granular and granular bedrock sites; DNR says Site Monitoring Reports for bedrock sites should be completed using its Tier 2 Bedrock Software, version 1.20.

The corrective action rules are in 567 Iowa Administrative Code Chapter 135. DNR reviews and approves the environmental covenants and institutional controls submitted for LUST sites; see Environmental covenants and institutional controls. Ask whether one was recorded for the site.

DNR says all activities of the former Iowa Comprehensive Petroleum Underground Storage Tank (UST) Fund are coordinated with its UST Section. DNR's Storage Tank Management Account Financing Program page, which takes questions on the former fund, links a Liens Filed List; the page does not say what the list holds.

Where to look a site up

  • DNR's Underground Storage Tank Database. DNR says the public can view the current status of UST and LUST sites there, and that it gives the site location, the site owners, tanks, RBCA, site classification and remediation.
  • DNR's Document Search. DNR says its UST Section is part of a department-wide Electronic Records Project working to index and digitize all records related to LUST and UST facilities, and that LUST files are being transitioned to its electronic records. Search with Program set to LUST and Program ID set to the LUST number.
  • DNR links its web-based RBCA application as the system for new and revised Tier 2 Site Cleanup Reports and Site Monitoring Reports. The pages read do not say what the public can see in it.

Getting the file

DNR says that if you cannot find records for a LUST or UST site in Document Search, you should contact the DNR Records Center. The Records Center, at 6200 Park Ave, Suite 200, Des Moines, is open 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday, except state holidays. DNR's Open Records Request page says requests to inspect public records go to the Office of the Chief Information Officer through the Iowa Information and Public Records Request Portal, and may also be made in person at a record center, by email to dnr.records.request@dnr.iowa.gov, or by mail.

Sources

Iowa Department of Natural Resources pages, read October 12, 2026:

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