North Carolina
Emergency Response
The Division of Water Resources of the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) is responsible for communication and for coordinating cleanup when an oil or sewage spill, or a fish kill or algal bloom, threatens surface waters. During business hours, an incident is reported to the division's regional office. After hours, on weekends and on holidays, reports go by phone to (800) 858-0368, which DEQ's home page gives as its toll-free line for environmental emergencies and the division's page gives as a number of the Division of Emergency Management. Anyone who needs first responders should call 911.
In a Phase I ESA
ASTM E1527-21 does not name state spill lists among its standard record sources. The federal counterpart of a state spill list is the emergency response record described on the ERNS page. A North Carolina spill report still matters, because it can be the only state record of a release that never became a cleanup case.
Four North Carolina details shape the search.
- Oil on water is reported twice. DEQ says an oil spill that reaches surface water has to be reported to North Carolina and to the National Response Center, whose line, (800) 424-8802, is open 24 hours; beside it the page lists a Division of Waste Management number, 919-814-0375. For an oil spill that does not reach surface water, the page sends you to a link it labels North Carolina Requirements for Reporting Spills, which this handbook did not open. The page gives Monday to Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., as the hours for reporting an oil spill to the regional office.
- Hazardous substances turn on the federal quantity. For a spill of a hazardous substance, DEQ's page says to look up the CERCLA reportable quantity on EPA's consolidated list, and to report to the state and the National Response Center, as for oil, if the spill meets or exceeds it.
- Sewer overflows have a threshold. DEQ's page says a wastewater system must report orally to Division of Water Resources staff at the regional office no later than 24 hours after a sewer overflow or spill happens, or after it is first known, when the overflow is more than 1,000 gallons or, whatever its size, reaches surface water. A voicemail or a fax does not count as that first report.
- Other releases go elsewhere in DEQ. The UST Section's forms page lists two 24-hour forms, UST-61, the 24-Hour Release and UST Leak Reporting Form, and UST-62, the 24-Hour Notification of Discharge Form, and DEQ's aboveground tank page says a release from an aboveground tank is reported to a UST Section regional office. The Inactive Hazardous Sites Program posts a 24-hour spill report form, and its notification page says the Branch must be told at once when a non-permitted activity is found to have contaminated groundwater. Search the records of each of those programs as well.
Where to look a site up
The pages read link no list or search of spill reports. DEQ's Online Public Records page links the Division of Water Resources' Laserfiche library and Map Locator; the pages read do not say whether either holds spill reports. The division's regional offices are listed on DEQ's Regional Offices page.
Getting the file
The pages read do not say where spill reports are kept or how to ask for one. DEQ's online request form asks you to pick the DEQ division the request concerns, or all divisions if you are unsure; see Requesting Public Records.
Sources
North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality pages, read October 13, 2026, no modified date shown: