Missouri
Environmental Emergency Response
The Missouri Department of Natural Resources' Environmental Emergency Response staff handle hazardous substance releases, natural or man-made disasters and threats to homeland security. The department says they carry out its duties under the Missouri Spill Bill, sections 260.500 to 260.550 of the Revised Statutes, and are responsible for addressing any material released to land, water or atmosphere that may affect the environment and public health.
In a Phase I ESA
ASTM E1527-21 does not name state spill records among its standard record sources. On a property with a spill history, this is the record of what was reported. Two Missouri details shape the search.
- Reports go to the spill line or the National Response Center. The department says responsible parties or spillers must report hazardous substance releases to its 24-hour Environmental Emergency Response Spill Line, 573-634-2436, or to the National Response Center, 800-424-8802. Duty officers staff the spill line around the clock and enter each spill or incident in the department's tracking systems.
- Two systems cover two periods. The department says its tracking systems hold information on all hazardous substance emergencies and releases reported on the spill line or to the National Response Center as far back as December 1993. The original system, the Missouri Environmental Emergency Response Tracking System (MEERTS), holds incidents on or before October 31, 2021. A newer one, the Missouri Environmental Logging Index (MERLIN), has held incidents since November 1, 2021. A full search runs both.
The department lists the kinds of emergencies its state on-scene coordinators respond to, among them hazardous materials incidents, pipeline leaks or breaks, substances released into the air, fish kills and mercury spills. A concern that is not an immediate threat, such as a trash dump, is reported to a regional office or through an online form instead.
Searching the systems
The department gives search tips. Searching by exact address is the best method. It advises leaving out street-type words such as "St." and "Ave.", leaving out the house number unless it is necessary, leaving out apartment numbers, spelling out directions and road types, trying both "1st Street" and "First Street", and using "Highway" for numbered state roads and "Route" for lettered ones. It says to use no punctuation. Without an address, a search by responsible party or incident date returns broader results to review.
Where to look a site up
- The department's Environmental Emergency Response Tracking Systems page links both searches: MEERTS for incidents on or before October 31, 2021 and MERLIN for incidents since November 1, 2021.
- A weekly report summarizing each week's reported incidents is available by email on request to MEERTSAdmin@dnr.mo.gov.
Getting the file
The pages read do not give a records route specific to spill reports. The department's general route is the Sunshine Law request.
Sources
Missouri Department of Natural Resources pages, read October 8, 2026, no modified date shown: