Open Records Requests

The North Dakota Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) takes open records requests by email at DEQOpenRecords@nd.gov. DEQ says records maintained by state agencies are generally open and available to the public with certain legal exceptions, that it provides records that can be legally released within a reasonable period, and that if it does not provide all or part of the requested records, it will say why.

In a Phase I ESA

A listing says a record exists. The reports and letters are in the file. The pages on each North Dakota program send you here for the file. DEQ adds a caution of its own: it says its record search contains no evaluation of the potential environmental impact on the site, that no DEQ response is a Phase I assessment of the property, and that the absence of information on a particular parcel or property does not necessarily mean there are no environmental concerns connected with it.

Before you ask

DEQ asks that you first check whether the information is on its website and available for download. Under the heading of frequently requested records, its Open Records page links, among others:

• Environmental Incident Reports;
• Voluntary Response Actions (VRA) thru June 2026 and Environmental Covenants thru June 2026, each labelled last updated periodically, and the Archived Institutional Controls, labelled retired 12/31/2023;
• the Underground Storage Tank Registry and the Leaking Underground Storage Tank Registry;
• All Solid Waste Facilities and All Waste Transporters;
• Underground Injection Control Wells - Class I and Class V, labelled last updated June 2026;
• CERIS-ND, for air quality or NPDES records. DEQ's Electronic Reporting page says the records in CERIS-ND may not be complete, and to make an open records request for documents that are not there.

How to ask

• Fill out DEQ's General Request Form for general records, or its NDPDES Request Form for stormwater and discharge records, both fillable PDFs linked from the Open Records Requests page, and send it to DEQOpenRecords@nd.gov.
• For a property, DEQ asks for as much identifying information as possible: the site name or present company or business name; historical site, company or business names; the property owner, if not the business on site; present and historical use; the street address and city; the county, township, range, section and coordinates; a map or aerial photo with the property clearly marked and named cross streets; the radius of the search arc; the type of information requested; and a start and end date. DEQ says: "Requests containing only a street address location are insufficient to perform a search, and will be returned to the sender."
• DEQ asks that you request information only in electronic format.
• Files may be reviewed in person at DEQ's offices during normal working hours. DEQ says no appointment is necessary, and asks that you call 701-328-5210 in advance to coordinate the review.

DEQ's Data & Maps page asks you to allow at least two weeks for a request, with larger requests taking longer, and says a good deal of its records are in paper form.

The Attorney General's page on requesting public records says anyone may see and get copies of a public entity's records, wherever they live. A request has to identify the records reasonably well, and may be made by any available means, such as phone, email or mail, or in person, and need not be in writing. The page gives no number of days: the entity must answer within a reasonable time, either with the records or with the legal authority for withholding them, and the Attorney General says what is reasonable depends on such things as how much was asked for and what kind of records. A denial is put in writing if the requester asks for that.

Cost

DEQ says these charges may be applied and billed before records are released: copies at 25 cents a page or side; locating records at $25 an hour of staff time, first hour free; excising confidential or closed material at $25 an hour, first hour free; and other costs to be determined. DEQ says that not all files and databases are searchable by geospatial data, especially older records, so ownership, facility name and property use are needed for a complete search, and that the longer a request takes to fill, the more it costs the requester.

Exemptions and limits

DEQ's Open Records page lists exemptions specific to certain requests, and its Data & Maps page adds limits of its own.

• Ambient groundwater data with specific well location information: DEQ's page says all well location information must be redacted, citing chapter 23.1-11 of the North Dakota Century Code. Its Data & Maps page adds that, because of an Attorney General's opinion, DEQ can give only general information about its groundwater monitoring program and not the laboratory results of individual samples.
• The location of public water intake structures, citing section 44-04-24 of the Century Code.
• Information available on the Department of Water Resources' site, which DEQ's Data & Maps page says will not be provided in its open records response.

For animal feeding operation records, DEQ notifies the owner and operator of who asked; see AFO/CAFO permits.

Sources

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

• Open Records Requests - North Dakota Department of Environmental Quality
• Data and Maps - North Dakota Department of Environmental Quality
• Electronic Reporting - North Dakota Department of Environmental Quality

North Dakota Office of Attorney General page, read October 13, 2026:

• Requesting Public Records, last modified October 9, 2023.