Pennsylvania environmental records for a Phase I ESA
Pennsylvania programs
Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection 17
- Storage tank registrations
- Storage Tank Cleanup Program
- Residential heating oil tanks
- Land Recycling Program
- Act 2 remediation standards
- Hazardous Sites Cleanup Program
- Multi-Site Remediation Agreements
- One Cleanup Program
- Municipal Waste Landfills and Resource Recovery Facilities
- Residual Waste Program
- Hazardous Waste Program
- Activity and Use Limitations (PA AUL) Registry
- Environmental Site Assessment Search Tool
- Informal File Review and Right-to-Know requests
- Oil and gas wells
- Abandoned mine lands and mine subsidence
- Environmental complaints and emergencies
Pennsylvania environmental records for a Phase I ESA
The Pennsylvania records described here are kept by one state agency, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP). Its Bureau of Environmental Cleanup and Brownfields runs the storage tank and cleanup programs. Its Bureau of Waste Management runs the hazardous, municipal and residual waste programs. Its Office of Oil and Gas Management runs the oil and gas program, and its Active and Abandoned Mine Operations offices run the mining programs. This page maps each kind of record ASTM E1527-21 asks for to the Pennsylvania program that holds it, and links a page on each program.
The standard record types, in Pennsylvania
| ASTM record type | Pennsylvania program | Agency |
|---|---|---|
| State Superfund equivalent | Hazardous Sites Cleanup Program | DEP |
| Landfills and solid waste sites | Municipal Waste Landfills and Resource Recovery Facilities. The same DEP list has a table of residual waste landfills; see the Residual Waste Program. | DEP |
| Leaking storage tanks | Storage Tank Cleanup Program | DEP |
| Registered storage tanks | Storage tank registrations | DEP |
| State hazardous waste facilities | No single Pennsylvania list is paired here. DEP's permitted commercial and captive facilities are on the Hazardous Waste Program page. | DEP |
| Institutional and engineering controls | Activity and Use Limitations (PA AUL) Registry | DEP |
| Voluntary cleanup sites | Land Recycling Program | DEP |
| Brownfields sites | The pages read name no separate brownfields list. DEP's Superfund page points to the Land Recycling Program for information about brownfields in Pennsylvania. | DEP |
How far each search reaches is on the ASTM search distances page.
Other Pennsylvania records worth reading
These are not on ASTM's standard list, but each answers a question a Pennsylvania Phase I runs into.
- Residential heating oil tanks: tanks that DEP's tank lists leave out, and the reimbursement program for underground ones.
- Act 2 remediation standards: the remediation standards Act 2 sets for cleanups under specific Pennsylvania environmental laws.
- Multi-Site Remediation Agreements: one agreement covering many sites of the same remediator.
- One Cleanup Program: the agreement between DEP and EPA for sites under both state and federal cleanup programs.
- Oil and gas wells: finding known wells, and why many old wells are not in the record.
- Abandoned mine lands and mine subsidence: the mine hazard inventory and the mining conditions map.
- Environmental complaints and emergencies: how incidents reach DEP and which office responds.
- Environmental Site Assessment Search Tool: DEP's own search for Phase I work, and its other cross-program tools.
One agency, six regional offices
DEP's public information is held at more than 20 offices across the Commonwealth, and file reviews are scheduled through six regional offices. Know the region before asking for a file.
| Regional office | City | Counties served |
|---|---|---|
| Southeast | Norristown | Bucks, Chester, Delaware, Montgomery, Philadelphia |
| Northeast | Wilkes-Barre | Carbon, Lackawanna, Lehigh, Luzerne, Monroe, Northampton, Pike, Schuylkill, Susquehanna, Wayne, Wyoming |
| Southcentral | Harrisburg | Adams, Bedford, Berks, Blair, Cumberland, Dauphin, Franklin, Fulton, Huntingdon, Juniata, Lancaster, Lebanon, Mifflin, Perry, York |
| Northcentral | Williamsport | Bradford, Cameron, Centre, Clearfield, Clinton, Columbia, Lycoming, Montour, Northumberland, Potter, Snyder, Sullivan, Tioga, Union |
| Southwest | Pittsburgh | Allegheny, Beaver, Cambria, Fayette, Greene, Somerset, Washington, Westmoreland |
| Northwest | Meadville | Armstrong, Butler, Clarion, Crawford, Elk, Erie, Forest, Indiana, Jefferson, Lawrence, McKean, Mercer, Venango, Warren |
DEP's Field Programs List shows which offices carry which program. Environmental cleanup, storage tanks, waste management and emergency response are in all regional offices. Oil and gas is in the Northcentral, Southwest and Northwest regional offices. Coal and industrial minerals mining is in the district mining offices, and abandoned mine reclamation is in the Wilkes-Barre and Cambria offices.
One search that crosses DEP's programs
DEP's Environmental Site Assessment Search Tool is a mapping tool that DEP describes as giving consultants conducting Phase I assessments, and interested members of the public, access to its information. It searches a target property, and other properties within a chosen radius, for DEP information on permitting, licensing, inspection, compliance, discharges of pollution, regulated storage tanks, site remediation and enforcement. DEP says the results may satisfy the needs of the assessment or can be used to write a more targeted records request.
DEP's facility database is eFACTS, and its tank, cleanup and hazardous site lists are drawn from it. DEP's mapping site is eMapPA. All three are described on the Environmental Site Assessment Search Tool page.
Getting a file from DEP
A listing says a record exists. The reports and letters are in the file. DEP offers two routes, described in full on the Informal File Review and Right-to-Know requests page:
- An Informal File Review, requested on an electronic form and scheduled with the regional office. DEP recommends this route first as the easier and quicker one. Reviews are scheduled between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m., Monday through Friday, and copies cost 15 cents per page.
- A request under the Right-to-Know Law, filed on DEP's online form or sent to its Agency Open Records Officer. Since May 1, 2018, DEP requires prepayment where costs are incurred. The Agency Open Records Officer is at 717-783-5645.
DEP says the records it routinely makes available for public inspection include notifications, inspection reports, notices of violation, enforcement orders, sample results, remediation plans, progress reports, monitoring reports, permits, consent orders, closure reports and monitoring well records.
Sources
Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection pages, read October 1, 2026, no modified date shown:
- Storage Tanks
- About Storage Tanks
- Site Remediation
- Superfund
- Land Recycling Program
- Contact Us
- Brownfield Redevelopment
- Brownfield Assistance and Funding
- Uniform Environmental Covenants
- Waste Programs
- Municipal Waste Landfills and Resource Recovery Facilities
- Office of Oil and Gas Management
- Active and Abandoned Mine Operations
- DEP Regions
- Field Programs List
- Public Records
- Informal File Review
- Right-to-Know Law
- Storage Tank Data-Searches
- Storage Tank Cleanup Locations
- Hazardous Site Response Actions List
- GIS