North Dakota
Environmental Audits
North Dakota has a procedure, under chapter 32-40.2 of the North Dakota Century Code, for industry to conduct self-audits of operations to assess environmental compliance. The North Dakota Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) lists Environmental Audits under its Office of the Director. DEQ says the audits are voluntary, internal and comprehensive evaluations intended to prevent noncompliance with environmental laws, rules or permits enforced under chapters 23.1-04 (hazardous waste), 23.1-06 (air pollution), 23.1-08 (solid waste), 38-08 (gas and oil resources) and 61-28 (surface water pollution).
In a Phase I ESA
ASTM E1527-21 does not name environmental audits among its standard record sources. DEQ's page bears on a Phase I in three ways.
- A prospective owner may conduct one. DEQ says environmental audits may be conducted by an owner, operator, or prospective owner or operator. The page does not say how such an audit relates to a Phase I.
- Protection depends on the process. DEQ says an environmental audit may be conducted at any time, but that to gain protection against enforcement, the process described in chapter 32-40.2 and summarized in the NDDEQ Environmental Audit Policy must be followed. DEQ links an Audit Summary Form to be used to comply with section 5.3 of that policy.
- Audit papers go to DEQ's legal mailbox. DEQ says all audit documents and correspondence must be submitted in writing to deq-legal@nd.gov.
Where a seller or operator says it has audited its operations, ask whether the audit was conducted under chapter 32-40.2, and whether DEQ received the documents.
Where to look a site up
The pages read link no list of audits. They do not say whether audit documents submitted to DEQ are open to the public.
Getting the file
DEQ takes open records requests at DEQOpenRecords@nd.gov, on its General Request Form for general records. What to put in a request is on the Open Records Requests page.
Sources
North Dakota Department of Environmental Quality pages, read October 13, 2026, no modified date shown: