Ohio
DERR database
Ohio EPA's DERR database
The Division of Environmental Response and Revitalization (DERR) database is the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency's index of the sites throughout Ohio for which its district offices maintain files. Ohio EPA posts it as a spreadsheet, beside lists of projects with institutional controls, projects with engineering controls, and all Voluntary Action Program sites.
In a Phase I ESA
ASTM E1527-21 lists state equivalents of the federal Superfund site lists among its standard sources. This handbook does not pair a single Ohio list with that type, and Ohio EPA's own description of the DERR database is the reason. The distances the standard sets for each kind of record are on the search distances page.
- It is not a list of contaminated sites. Ohio EPA says the database is not a record of contaminated sites in Ohio. Not all sites in it are contaminated, and a site's absence from it does not imply that the site is uncontaminated.
- It is not a brownfields list. Ohio EPA says not all sites in the database meet the federal or state definitions of brownfields, and many Ohio properties that would qualify are not in it. The state's brownfields list is the Ohio Brownfield Inventory.
- It is an index to files. A listing means a district office has a file. What the file says is the next question.
What the record shows
Ohio EPA says the database holds basic site information only:
- the name and address of the site;
- its latitude and longitude;
- whether the property is, to Ohio EPA's knowledge, being cleaned up under the Voluntary Action Program or is receiving technical assistance through it;
- whether Clean Ohio Fund money has been issued to remediate the site.
An older report may cite the Master Sites List (MSL). Ohio EPA says the MSL was created in 1988 to list, track and report potentially contaminated sites managed by DERR: sites with evidence or suspicion of contamination of air, water or soil and a confirmed or potential threat to human health or the environment. It was a query of the larger DERR database. The MSL no longer exists. It was last updated in 1997 and last published in 1999, so a report that relies on it is relying on a list that has not been updated since 1997.
The same Ohio EPA page describes three archived databases that are no longer maintained: OLDSWLF, SIABASE and TOWNGAS.
Where to look a site up
- The DERR database spreadsheet and the other lists are on Ohio EPA's Database Request page. When read, the page gave their last update as June 25, 2026.
- DERR's DERR Sites App is an interactive map of the division's site locations and information.
- DERR is at 614-644-2924.
Getting the file
Ohio EPA says detailed information on the status of each site can be provided by the appropriate district office. It has no central repository: each division and district office stores its own files. Many records are in the agency's eDocument search. For others, use the online file review request form.
Sources
Ohio Environmental Protection Agency pages, read October 7, 2026, no modified date shown: