North Carolina environmental records for a Phase I ESA

16Program pages

North Carolina programs

North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality 16

A Phase I records review in North Carolina draws mostly on one state agency, the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ). Its Division of Waste Management (DWM) runs most of the programs behind what the standard asks about: underground tanks and petroleum releases in the Underground Storage Tank (UST) Section; hazardous substance sites, dry cleaners, old landfills and federal cleanups in the Superfund Section; and the Solid Waste, Hazardous Waste and Brownfields Redevelopment Sections. DEQ's Division of Water Resources coordinates the cleanup of oil and sewage spills that threaten surface water, and it runs the state's injection well program. This page maps each kind of record ASTM E1527-21 asks for to the North Carolina program behind it, and links a page on each program.

The standard record types, in North Carolina

ASTM record type	North Carolina program	Agency
State Superfund equivalent	Inactive Hazardous Sites Program, run by DWM's Superfund Section, which posts its site inventory as lists by name and by county dated March 2026. The pages read do not call that inventory a state Superfund list; the pairing is the handbook's reading.	DEQ
State hazardous waste facilities	No single North Carolina list is paired here. The pages read link no list of hazardous waste facilities, though DEQ says its Site Locator Tool finds them among DWM's sites. See Hazardous Waste Section.	DEQ
Landfills and solid waste sites	Solid Waste Section for permitted facilities, and the Pre-Regulatory Landfill Program for landfills and dumps that took municipal waste before 1983 and none after.	DEQ
Leaking storage tanks	UST Section Corrective Action Branch for underground tanks, and Non-UST Petroleum Releases for aboveground tanks and other petroleum releases. DEQ posts two downloads it labels the Incident Management Database, for regional underground storage tanks, and the Aboveground Incident Management Database, for regional aboveground storage tanks. This handbook did not open them, so the pairings rest on those labels and on the programs' accounts of their work; they are the handbook's reading.	DEQ
Registered storage tanks	Underground Storage Tank (UST) Program, whose databases page posts a download it labels the Registered Tanks Database. DEQ requires an aboveground tank to be registered with its UST Section only if it meets the definition of an oil terminal facility; see Aboveground Storage Tanks.	DEQ
Institutional and engineering controls	No single North Carolina registry is paired here. The pages read describe land-use restrictions filed with the county Register of Deeds under a brownfields agreement or a dry cleaner site closure, and cleanups that rely on land-use controls, but link no statewide list of them. See Risk-Based Remediation and Brownfields Redevelopment Section.	DEQ
Voluntary cleanup sites	Registered Environmental Consultant (REC) Program. DEQ's brownfields FAQ gives Voluntary Cleanup Program as a shorter name for the Inactive Hazardous Sites Program, and its brownfields program page names the REC Program as that program's privatized oversight. The pages read link no separate list of voluntary cleanup sites; DEQ says that when a site satisfactorily completes a voluntary remedial action, its status in the Inactive Hazardous Sites inventory becomes No Further Action. The pairing is the handbook's reading.	DEQ
Brownfields sites	Brownfields Redevelopment Section, whose Brownfields Projects map locates the projects in the section's database.	DEQ

How far each search reaches is on the ASTM search distances page.

One map across DWM's programs

DWM's Site Locator Tool puts the division's sites on a single interactive map: brownfield locations, underground tanks, landfills, Superfund sites and hazardous waste facilities among them. DEQ says a site can be found by address, name or ID number, and that most facilities' files are linked from the results. The exception it names is underground storage tanks, a program it says permits about 6,000 facilities and is still moving its paper records into electronic files. Some DEQ pages link the same tool at a second address.

DWM's documents are in its Laserfiche system, open to the public through Laserfiche WebLink. DEQ says every file from the division's older CARA/Documentum system was moved into it, and that staff add permits and reports daily. Underground tank registration, permitting and inspection documents sit in a search of their own, the UST Permits & Inspection Public Records Search, which DEQ says holds such documents completed after August 2011 and some older ones that were scanned.

DEQ's Online Public Records page gathers document libraries and map tools from several DEQ divisions, among them the Division of Water Resources' Laserfiche library and Map Locator and DEQ's GIS data hub.

Other agencies

DEQ's records request page says DEQ does not usually have septic system permits, which may be found at the local health department or the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services, or asbestos removal files, which may be with that department's Asbestos Program. DEQ's aboveground tank page says DEQ does not regulate how aboveground tanks are installed, built, permitted or monitored; it sends questions on building standards to local and county fire prevention departments, and points to the Office of State Fire Marshal. Spills reported outside business hours can go to the Division of Emergency Management, DEQ's emergency response page says. This handbook does not read those agencies' pages.

Getting a file from DEQ

A listing says a record exists. The reports and letters are in the file. DEQ takes public records requests for every division through its online Public Records Request form. You choose one or more divisions, or all of them if unsure, and one or more record types, a Phase I request among them. DEQ says records come electronically where possible, and that someone will contact you to set an appointment if the file has to be seen in person. For a Phase I request, DEQ says its public information officers search the department's internal databases, and it lists its online databases to search while you wait. Questions and status checks go to publicrecords@deq.nc.gov. The Requesting Public Records page sets out the form and the file rooms in full.

Who may ask. DEQ's pages read do not say. Under G.S. 132-6, any person may inspect and examine a custodian's public records at reasonable times and under reasonable supervision, and need not say why.
How long DEQ takes to answer. DEQ's pages read give no number of days, and neither does G.S. 132-6(a), which says copies are to be furnished as promptly as possible once any fee the law sets is paid. The request page says only that requests are processed in the order received, and that a request for email correspondence goes through a separate process and may take longer than a request for documents.

DWM's own file rooms are a second route. DWM's file room page says its Hazardous Waste, Solid Waste, Superfund and UST Sections each keep a separate file room, and names none for brownfields. It says DWM cannot search files or make copies for you, and that each file room needs its own appointment, with the files named when you book. Its file room page lists, with no date, the first 25 copies per request free and then 2.5 cents a page; the UST Section's file review page gives 5 cents a page at its office copiers. The two pages disagree on the UST copy charge.

DEQ's general line for questions about the environment and its rules is 1-877-623-6748, and DWM takes general inquiries at 919-707-8200. DEQ's physical address is 217 West Jones Street, Raleigh, NC 27603.

Sources

North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality pages, read October 13, 2026, no modified date shown:

North Carolina General Assembly page, read October 13, 2026, no modified date shown:

G.S. 132-6, Inspection, examination and copies of public records; its history lists 2023-134 as the latest amendment.