Pennsylvania Environmental Site Assessment Search Tool

The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) describes its Environmental Site Assessment Search Tool as a mapping tool that gives consultants conducting Phase I environmental site assessments, and interested members of the public, access to information DEP maintains on permitting, licensing, inspection, compliance, discharges of pollution, regulated storage tanks, site remediation and enforcement.

In a Phase I ESA

ASTM E1527-21 does not name agency search tools among its standard record sources. It names kinds of records, and this tool is DEP's own way to search several of them at once.

• It searches by distance. DEP says users can search for information on a specific target property and on other properties of interest within a specified radius.
• DEP expects it to shape the records request. DEP says the results may satisfy the needs of the assessment, or can be used to write a more targeted Informal File Review or Right-to-Know request. It asks people to consider the tool before filing a Right-to-Know request.
• A simplified version draws on eFACTS. DEP describes a simplified version, the Environmental Search Tool, as giving public access to information maintained in its eFACTS database. Results may identify the location of permitted activities, known contamination, and documented violations of the laws DEP administers.
• Some records are held back from DEP's public tools. DEP says its tank searches do not display aboveground tank systems storing highly hazardous substances or aboveground systems with a capacity greater than 21,000 gallons. It says its mapping site, eMapPA, does not display dams, explosive storage locations, public water supplies, and certain water pollution control, water resource and radiation facilities. The pages read do not say what the search tool itself leaves out, so confirm a result in the program's own list.
• DEP disclaims the data. On its tank and hazardous site lists, DEP states that it makes no representations or warranties about the suitability, sufficiency or accuracy of the data.

DEP's other tools

DEP's other cross-program tools, and what DEP says each one does:

DEP also publishes reports by program. Its reports pages for land recycling, waste, and oil and gas link lists described on the other Pennsylvania pages.

Where to look a site up

• Environmental Site Assessment Search Tool
• eFACTS
• eMapPA
• DEP's Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Mapping Tools page, which links the Open Data Portal, the oil and gas map and the AUL registry.
• DEP's Data and Tools page, which links its reports and eLibrary.

Getting the file

A search result says a record exists. The reports and letters are in the file. DEP recommends an Informal File Review, requested on an electronic form and scheduled with the regional office, before a request under the Right-to-Know Law. Both routes are on the Informal File Review and Right-to-Know requests page.

Sources

Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection pages, read October 1, 2026, no modified date shown:

• Public Records
• Informal File Review
• Right-to-Know Law
• GIS
• Tools
• Data and Tools
• Storage Tank Data-Searches
• Hazardous Site Response Actions List
• Oil and Gas Reports
• Land Recycling Reports
• Waste Reports