North Carolina

Requesting Public Records

Agency North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality

The North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) takes public records requests for all of its divisions through one online form, the Public Records Request form, linked from its Requesting Public Records page. DEQ's public information officers help residents, stakeholders and the media with information and records requests, and DEQ says the online system lets it track requests and fill them in the order they arrive. The Division of Waste Management (DWM) also keeps its own file rooms, described below.

In a Phase I ESA

A listing says a record exists. The reports and letters are in the file. The pages on each North Carolina program send you here. DEQ's form has a record type for Phase I requests, and its request page has a passage on them.

How DEQ asks you to frame a request

Who you are. Your name and email address are required; a phone number and organization are optional.
Which division. Choose one or more DEQ divisions, or all of them if you are not sure. DEQ asks that stormwater requests go to the Division of Energy, Mineral and Land Resources.
What kind of record. Choose one or more record types, or say you are unsure. The form asks further questions for email, document and Phase I requests, and one request can cover several types. Then describe the request and attach any files it needs.
Email takes longer. DEQ says a request for email correspondence goes through a separate process and may take longer to fill than a request for documents, and that naming dates, people and keywords speeds it up.
Some records are not at DEQ. DEQ says it does not usually have septic system permits, which may be 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.

What happens next

DEQ says records come to you electronically where possible, and that someone will contact you to set an appointment if the file must be seen in person. For a Phase I request, DEQ says its public information officers search the department's internal databases, and it lists online tools to search in the meantime: DEQ's Community Mapping System, the Laserfiche records and maps of the Air Quality, Water Resources, and Energy, Mineral and Land Resources divisions, and DWM's Site Locator Tool, Laserfiche records, UST public records search and UST databases.

Who may ask. DEQ's pages read do not say. Chapter 132 of the General Statutes does: under G.S. 132-6(a), a custodian must let any person inspect and examine the records in its custody at reasonable times and under reasonable supervision, and under 132-6(b) no one asking to inspect records or for copies can be made to say why.
How long DEQ takes to answer. DEQ's pages read give no number of days; they say that requests are processed in the order received and that email requests may take longer than document requests. Section 132-6(a) gives none either: copies are to be furnished as promptly as possible once any fee the law sets is paid. Under 132-6(a1), a public agency or custodian may satisfy subsection (a) as a whole by putting records online where a person can view them and print or save a copy, and if it keeps records online that way it need not provide copies of them any other way.
What it costs. DEQ's request page gives no fees. DWM's file room charges are below.

DWM's file rooms

DWM says its Hazardous Waste, Solid Waste, Superfund and UST Sections each keep a separate file room, and that limited resources keep it from searching files or making copies for you. If you send a copying or file search firm, DWM requires a letter to the section's file room, and says it should give your name, the firm's name, your address and phone number, and the company whose file is to be reviewed; any fees are between you and the firm.

Appointments. Each file room takes one appointment at a time, so book early and reserve a block of time. Each section's files need their own appointment, the files must be named when you book, and DWM says no one is shown files without an appointment. Visitors to the Green Square building at 217 West Jones Street get a pass from the first-floor receptionist.
Addresses. The Hazardous Waste, Solid Waste and Superfund file rooms take mail at Mail Service Center 1646, Raleigh, NC 27699-1646, and the UST file room at Mail Service Center 1637, Raleigh, NC 27699-1637.
Charges. The file room page lists, with no date, the first 25 copies per request free, then 2.5 cents a page, $3.00 for a large map copy and $15.00 for a CD-R of material held electronically, paid at the time of copying in cash or by check, with a $20 fee for a returned check. The UST Section's own file review page gives 5 cents a page at its office copiers, counting each side of a double-sided copy as a page, and $15.00 for each archive disc of closed UST files. The two pages disagree on the UST copy charge.
Not everything is online. DEQ's Superfund File Records page says CERCLA site assessment reports and letters, older National Priorities List documents and documents received recently, generally in the last 30 days, may not be in the online system.

The UST Section keeps files in DEQ's regional offices as well as in Raleigh, and each office sets its own days, appointment rules and limits; see UST Section Corrective Action Branch.

Where to look a site up

DEQ's Online Public Records page gathers document libraries and map tools from several DEQ divisions.
DWM's documents are in its Laserfiche WebLink.

Getting the file

Send the request through the Public Records Request form. For help or to check on a request, write to publicrecords@deq.nc.gov or contact one of DEQ's public information officers, listed on its Public Information Contacts page; DEQ Public Affairs takes email at publicaffairs@deq.nc.gov.

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.