Oregon
Underground Storage Tank (UST) Program
Oregon Underground Storage Tank (UST) Program
Oregon's registered tank records come from the Underground Storage Tank (UST) Program of the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ). DEQ says the program handles tank registration and operating certificates, the installation, operation and removal of USTs, financial liability protection for future leaks, the licensing of contractors who work on USTs, and enforcement of the state UST rules.
In a Phase I ESA
DEQ's UST facility lists are the Oregon form of the state registered storage tank records that ASTM E1527-21 lists as a standard source. The general reading of a registered tank listing is on the UST / AST page. A registration says a tank system exists or existed. Releases are a separate record, on the Leaking Underground Storage Tank Program page. Five Oregon details shape the search.
- The program has edges. DEQ says the program covers tanks storing gasoline, ethanol, diesel, biodiesel and listed hazardous substances, tanks greater than 110 gallons (greater than 1,100 gallons if residential or farm use), and tanks in use after 1974. It describes them as the same universe of USTs as the federal program under RCRA Subtitle I, typically those found at gas stations or connected to emergency generators. Home heating oil tanks are not in this program; they are on the Heating Oil Tank Program page. DEQ's heating oil pages say its tank data is incomplete in the sense that not every tank is regulated by DEQ, and give residential heating oil tanks, small tanks and farm tanks as examples. Do not read a missing facility record as a missing tank.
- The operating certificate decides fuel deliveries. DEQ publishes a list of UST facilities with operating certificates allowing fuel deliveries. It says the certificate number authorizes the facility to deposit regulated substances, such as motor fuels, into the new or upgraded tanks, and that distributors are subject to enforcement action for delivering fuel to a facility without one. A second list, the Do Not Deliver List, is of UST facilities without valid operating certificates that cannot receive fuel.
- The facility ID is inside the certificate number. DEQ says the UST Facility ID number is the second number in the string of an operating certificate number. The facility summary search requires that ID, which can be looked up in the ZIP code list.
- The facilities list counts tanks by status. DEQ says its UST Facilities by ZIP Code list is compiled of all underground storage tank facilities in Oregon. For each it gives the facility ID, name, location, city, ZIP, phone number and permittee, and the total number of tanks, the number active, the number decommissioned and the number permitted. Where the count shows decommissioned tanks, ask for the decommissioning record.
- Old closures are not online. DEQ says that for files on UST facilities that were completely decommissioned before 2016, a public records request must be filed.
DEQ notes that the operating certificate list will change over time as new facilities are issued certificates and existing facilities close and are removed from the database.
The statute is Oregon Revised Statutes 466.706 to 466.845, 466.994 and 466.995. The rules are in Oregon Administrative Rules Chapter 340: Division 150, the Underground Storage Tank Rules, and Division 151, Financial Responsibility for USTs. DEQ says updated Division 160 rules, which govern the licensing and work of UST service providers and supervisors, came into effect on July 1, 2025.
What a tank file can hold
Since January 2025 the program has taken its filings through Your DEQ Online. The titles of the user guides DEQ posts for tank owners show the paper a tank can generate:
- Installing a New Tank;
- Decommission or Change in Service and 30-day Notice;
- Decommission Unregistered Tanks;
- Owner Permittee Modification;
- Product Modification Notice;
- Annual Test Results;
- Financial Responsibility Documentation.
DEQ tells a new owner to make sure the change in ownership notification and contact information have been submitted. The pages read do not describe the forms used before January 2025.
Where to look a site up
- DEQ's facility summary search, by Facility ID number.
- DEQ's Records, Operating Certificates and Facility Lists page, which carries the UST Facilities by ZIP Code list, the operating certificate list and the Do Not Deliver List.
- The Oregon Records Management System, where DEQ says it has digitized Tanks program records so that they are available to the public online and without charge. The records page links illustrated instructions.
- The UST Duty Officer is at 503-229-5034 and UST.DutyOfficer@deq.oregon.gov.
Getting the file
Start with the Oregon Records Management System. For a facility completely decommissioned before 2016, and for anything not found online, file a public records request. The route is described on the Your DEQ Online and public records requests page.
Sources
Oregon Department of Environmental Quality pages, read October 7, 2026, no modified date shown: