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Oregon

Your DEQ Online (YDO) and public records requests

Agency Oregon Department of Environmental Quality

Oregon Your DEQ Online (YDO) and public records requests

Your DEQ Online (YDO) is the environmental data management system the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) uses for permits, licenses, certificates, reporting and more. Its Public Records Portal shows the information DEQ's programs have published there. What is not published is asked for through DEQ's public records request portal.

In a Phase I ESA

ASTM E1527-21 does not name an agency records system among its standard record sources. In Oregon it is where a cleanup, tank or permit listing becomes a document. Six details shape how far to trust a search.

  • There are three modules, and the portal opens on the first. DEQ lists Submittals, Permits/Licenses/Certificates, and Projects, and says the portal opens by default on Submittals. Projects holds the published environmental cleanup, leaking underground storage tank and heating oil tank information, so a cleanup search starts by changing module.
  • Publication is a program's choice. DEQ describes Submittals as those received through Your DEQ Online that DEQ programs have chosen to publish in the portal, and says information not published there may be found elsewhere.
  • Programs joined on different dates. DEQ's list gives Hazardous Waste as of October 7, 2021; Environmental Cleanup, Leaking Underground Storage Tanks, and Heating Oil Tanks and their licensing as of April 16, 2024; Underground Storage Tanks as of January 7, 2025; and Solid Waste Permits as of June 17, 2025. Underground Injection Control joined as of October 1, 2021.
  • Older projects are thin. DEQ's tank pages say information found in Your DEQ Online is not comprehensive for old projects, and the heating oil page adds that there may be older records in a physical file. For heating oil tank projects DEQ draws the line at April 3, 2024: projects started after it have the majority of their records in the portal.
  • It is working information. Of its cleanup data DEQ says some may be unconfirmed, outdated or incomplete, that it is summary in nature, and that it is subject to change at any time. It says the appearance of a site does not necessarily mean that the site is contaminated.
  • Tank paper and enforcement cases are elsewhere. DEQ says it has digitized Tanks program records in the Oregon Records Management System, a separate site. Enforcement cases are looked up in DEQ's Formal Enforcement Database, and its Enforcement Actions page says penalties are listed there.

On enforcement, DEQ says its Office of Compliance and Enforcement issues civil penalties and Department Orders, that penalties are calculated under Oregon Administrative Rules Chapter 340, Division 12, and that an organization or individual must either pay a penalty or appeal within 20 days of receiving the notice.

Where to look a site up

DEQ's Online Services page says the databases it lists under "Databases and mapping applications" are intended as a starting point in research and are not intended as a legal resource, and that conclusions drawn from them are the responsibility of the user. The pages read do not show which databases that list names.

Getting the file

DEQ's Public Records at DEQ page gives two ways to request records that are not already posted online.

  • Preferred. The online public records request portal. DEQ says it is the fastest way, and that it lets a requester track the status of the request, pay fees and download the records directly.
  • Alternative. A written request mailed to the Public Records Coordinator, Oregon Department of Environmental Quality, 700 NE Multnomah St., Suite 600, Portland, OR 97232.

DEQ asks for as much detail as is necessary to locate the records, and says it may follow up if it does not understand which records are sought.

  • Fees. DEQ says a request may be subject to fees permitted under Oregon's public records law. It automatically waives the first 30 minutes of time spent on a request, and sends an estimate for review and approval before proceeding when it anticipates fees. It links its current fee schedule. A fee waiver in the public interest can be asked for in the online request form.
  • Timing. DEQ says it will acknowledge or complete a request within five business days. Within 15 business days it will either provide the records, except any withheld as confidential, or give a reasonable timeframe within which it expects to complete the request.
  • Questions. recordsrequest@deq.oregon.gov.

In a request, name the program and the identifier that program uses: a cleanup project number, a leaking tank log number, a UST facility ID or a permit number. For UST facilities completely decommissioned before 2016, DEQ's tank records page says a public records request must be filed.

Sources

Oregon Department of Environmental Quality pages, read October 7, 2026, no modified date shown:

Maintained by Barrow. General reference only, not legal or professional advice. Barrow is not affiliated with or endorsed by any government agency. See how Barrow drafts the report