North Carolina
Aboveground Storage Tanks
The North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) says an aboveground storage tank must be registered only if it meets the definition of an oil terminal facility, and that most do not. Those registrations go to the Underground Storage Tank (UST) Section of DEQ's Division of Waste Management. DEQ says it does not regulate how aboveground tanks are installed, built, permitted or monitored. Their building standards come from Chapter 22 of the North Carolina Fire Code, the North Carolina Building Code, and NFPA 30 and 30A, and DEQ sends questions about those standards to local and county fire prevention departments and points to the Office of State Fire Marshal.
In a Phase I ESA
ASTM E1527-21 lists state registered storage tank records as a standard source, and the general reading of a registered tank listing is on the UST / AST page. In North Carolina that record reaches aboveground tanks only at oil terminal facilities, and the pages read link no list of registered oil terminal facilities. An aboveground tank missing from DEQ's records is not evidence that no tank was there.
Three North Carolina details shape the search.
- What counts as an oil terminal facility. DEQ's page takes the definition from G.S. 143-215.77(11) of the Oil Pollution and Hazardous Substances Control Act. In short, it is a facility on or under land or water that is used, or could be used, to move, store, process or refine oil. It leaves out facilities that can store less than 500 barrels (21,000 gallons) and retail gasoline stations that serve the public, and it counts a vessel only for certain transfers and for storage.
- What a registration holds. G.S. 143-215.96 requires registration, and the owner or operator must apply within 30 days of starting operation. The application asks for the owner's and operator's names and contact details, the number of employees and the principal officers, maps or sketches of the property lines and nearby water bodies, and the facility's procedures for preventing oil spills. DEQ mails a Certificate of Registration after its review. For a registered facility, ask whether the file holds the maps and spill prevention procedures.
- Releases go to the UST Section. A release from an aboveground tank is reported to a UST Section regional office and cleaned up as the state requires; DEQ points to the Non-UST Petroleum Releases program for guidance.
DEQ's page also summarizes 40 CFR Part 112, EPA's Oil Pollution Prevention regulation. As DEQ describes it, the rule reaches non-transportation facilities with more than 1,320 gallons of aboveground oil storage capacity or more than 42,000 gallons completely buried, counts capacity whether or not the tanks are full, and, besides those capacities, regulates a facility if an oil discharge from it could reach navigable waters of the United States or adjoining shorelines; a regulated facility must have a Spill Prevention, Control, and Countermeasure (SPCC) plan.
Where to look a site up
- The pages read link no list of registered oil terminal facilities or of aboveground tanks.
- The Oil Terminal Facilities page gives (919) 707-8171 for questions. Registrations are mailed to Oil Terminal Facility Registration, NCDEQ/DWM/UST Section, 1646 Mail Service Center, Raleigh, NC 27699-1646.
Getting the file
The pages read give no records route of their own for oil terminal facility registrations. Since registrations go to the UST Section, ask that section: DWM's file room page says UST Section files can be asked for by letter, by fax to (919) 715-1117 or by phone at (919) 707-8171. DEQ's online request form is the department's general route; see Requesting Public Records.
Sources
North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality pages, read October 13, 2026, no modified date shown: