Ohio environmental records for a Phase I ESA

A Phase I records review in Ohio draws on two state agencies. The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency (Ohio EPA) runs the cleanup, brownfields, hazardous waste, landfill and spill response programs. The Ohio Department of Commerce, Division of State Fire Marshal, created the Bureau of Underground Storage Tank Regulations (BUSTR) to run the state's underground storage tank programs, and BUSTR investigates and directs the cleanup of releases from those tanks. This page maps each kind of record ASTM E1527-21 asks for to the Ohio program behind it, and links a page on each program.

The standard record types, in Ohio

How far each search reaches is on the ASTM search distances page.

Other Ohio records worth reading

These are not on ASTM's standard list, but each answers a question an Ohio Phase I runs into.

• Emergency Response spills and releases: the spill hotline's incident reports and how to ask for them.
• eDocument Search: which Ohio EPA document types are online, and from what date.
• Cessation of Regulated Operations: what an owner must remove when a facility that reported chemicals shuts down.
• Targeted Brownfield Assessment Program: Phase I and Phase II assessments done for local governments at no cost to them.
• Developing On or Near a Landfill: the rules for digging or building on land once used for waste disposal.
• OLDSWLF, SIABASE and TOWNGAS: three archived lists of old dumps, sludge lagoons and coal gas plants.
• Underground storage tank closures: the dates that decide whether an old tank was ever registered or assessed.

Two agencies, and local offices too

Tanks are the dividing line. Ohio EPA lists petroleum and fuel underground storage tanks among the matters it does not regulate and points to the Department of Commerce's State Fire Marshal. A search that stops at one agency leaves the other agency's records unread. For a gas station, ask BUSTR about the registration and any release. For a former industrial site, ask Ohio EPA about cleanup and waste records.

Two more bodies sit near the tank records. BUSTR says it is separate from the Petroleum Underground Storage Tank Release Compensation Board, which handles reimbursement for cleanups. BUSTR also says it does not regulate residential heating oil tanks, propane tanks, or aboveground tanks that hold flammable or combustible liquids, and sends questions about those to the local fire department.

Landfill records can be local as well. Ohio EPA says that in 2021, 65 of Ohio's 113 local health districts were approved to license and inspect solid waste and construction and demolition debris facilities, and that Ohio EPA does that work in the other districts.

One map of the cleanup division's sites

Ohio EPA's Division of Environmental Response and Revitalization (DERR) links a DERR Sites App, which it describes as an interactive map of site locations and information for the division. Start there to see whether DERR has a site near a property.

Getting a file from Ohio EPA

A listing says a record exists. The reports and letters are in the file. Ohio EPA says it has no central repository: each division and each district office stores its own files, so more than one office may need to be asked about one site.

• Many records are in the agency's eDocument search.
• For anything else, Ohio EPA strongly recommends its online file review request form. A request does not have to use the form, be in writing, or say who is asking or why.
• Ohio EPA says the best first contact is the district office where the facility or site is located, and that the date range is often the single most important part of a request.
• District offices generally hold permit applications, plan review correspondence, violation letters, facility inspection letters, general correspondence, complaint investigations and sampling results.

For help, Ohio EPA gives 614-644-3037 and edoc.support@epa.ohio.gov. The law behind these requests is Ohio Revised Code 149.43.

Getting a file from BUSTR

BUSTR's database is OTTER Engage, which replaced its older OTTER database in July 2025. BUSTR says public records requests must be submitted through OTTER Engage, with or without an OHID account, and recommends an account so that a request can be tracked. BUSTR is at 614-752-7938 or 800-686-2878, and Web.BUSTR@com.ohio.gov.

Sources

Ohio Environmental Protection Agency pages, read October 7, 2026, no modified date shown:

• Environmental Response & Revitalization
• Database Request
• Remedial Response Program
• Ohio Brownfields
• Licensed Solid Waste and C&DD Facilities
• Health District Partners
• Emergency Response
• Access Public Records
• eDocument Search

Ohio Department of Commerce pages, read October 7, 2026, no modified date shown:

• Underground Storage Tanks (BUSTR)
• Corrective Action (Clean Up)
• Search BUSTR Database
• Public Records Request (PRR) & Database Search
• Contact Information