Rhode Island environmental records for a Phase I ESA
Rhode Island programs
Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management 15
- Underground Storage Tank Management Program
- Leaking Underground Storage Tank (LUST) program
- Aboveground Storage Tank Program
- Site Remediation Program
- List of CERCLIS and State Sites
- Brownfields Program
- Superfund and Department of Defense Program
- Waste Facilities Management Program
- Landfill Closure Program
- Hazardous waste generators, transporters and facilities
- Environmental Land Use Restrictions (ELURs)
- Office of Emergency Response
- Office of Compliance and Inspection
- Onsite Wastewater Treatment Systems (OWTS)
- DEM File Reviews
The Rhode Island programs on these pages are run by one state agency, the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management (DEM), through offices of its Environmental Protection Bureau. The Office of Land Revitalization and Sustainable Materials Management handles underground storage tanks, waste facilities, landfill closures and contaminated site cleanup; DEM says its remediation staff oversee Superfund cleanups, Department of Defense sites, brownfield sites, leaking underground tanks and landfill closures. The Office of Emergency Response registers aboveground storage tanks and responds to spills. The Office of Customer and Technical Assistance coordinates file reviews. This page maps each kind of record ASTM E1527-21 asks for to the Rhode Island program that matches it, and links a page on each program.
The standard record types, in Rhode Island
| ASTM record type | Rhode Island program | Agency |
|---|---|---|
| State Superfund equivalent | List of CERCLIS and State Sites. DEM does not call it a state Superfund list. The pairing is this handbook's reading of DEM's description: sites investigated under the federal CERCLIS program, and sites that have notified under the state program or have been investigated for hazardous substances. | DEM |
| State hazardous waste facilities | No single Rhode Island list is paired here. See the Waste Facilities Management Program and Hazardous waste generators, transporters and facilities. | DEM |
| Landfills and solid waste sites | Waste Facilities Management Program and the Landfill Closure Program, with DEM's list of inactive landfill and dump sites. The pairing is this handbook's reading: DEM's waste facility lists also hold medical and hazardous waste facilities. | DEM |
| Leaking storage tanks | Leaking Underground Storage Tank (LUST) program | DEM |
| Registered storage tanks | Underground Storage Tank Management Program and the Aboveground Storage Tank Program | DEM |
| Institutional and engineering controls | Environmental Land Use Restrictions (ELURs). DEM's list is of Site Remediation sites with ELURs. The pages read do not say whether it lists engineering controls. | DEM |
| Voluntary cleanup sites | No single Rhode Island list is paired here. DEM says a 1995 law established a voluntary program for brownfields cleanup through DEM, and its Site Remediation Program lists encouraging voluntary responses among its objectives. The pages read link no separate list of voluntary cleanup sites. | DEM |
| Brownfields sites | Brownfields Program. The pages read link no separate brownfields list. DEM's List of CERCLIS and State Sites says it includes Brownfield sites, and the pairing is this handbook's reading of that list's brownfield entries. | DEM |
How far each search reaches is on the ASTM search distances page.
Other Rhode Island records worth reading
These are not paired with a record type in the table above, but each answers a question a Rhode Island Phase I runs into.
- Superfund and Department of Defense Program: DEM's part in federal Superfund and defense site cleanups.
- Office of Emergency Response: how spills are reported, and where the response files sit.
- Office of Compliance and Inspection: complaints, inspections and enforcement.
- Onsite Wastewater Treatment Systems (OWTS): septic folders and the permit searches DEM links.
- DEM File Reviews: how DEM's files are requested and reviewed.
Searches DEM provides
DEM's pages link Enviro Site Search, several permit searches and several lists. This handbook did not open the searches or the list files, and does not say what any of them holds beyond what DEM's pages say.
- Enviro Site Search. DEM's pages link Enviro Site Search as DEM's online database of environmental regulatory data. The tank program's page labels the same search Public UST Records.
- Site inventories. DEM's Site Inventories page posts lists from the tank, waste facilities, federal facilities and site remediation programs: the List of CERCLIS and State Sites, the sites with Environmental Land Use Restrictions, active and inactive waste facilities, inactive landfill and dump sites, and inventories of underground tanks and leaking underground tanks. DEM says the lists are current as of the date indicated and may change frequently. It says the presence of a site on one of the lists should not be read as a sign of an ongoing problem, and the absence of a site should not be read as a sign that the site is free of regulatory issues under these programs.
- Aboveground tanks. The Aboveground Storage Tanks (ASTs) page posts the Aboveground Storage Tank List as a spreadsheet. DEM says the Office of Emergency Response updates it each year on July 1 for all updates filed during the previous calendar year.
DEM's notices page says DEM makes no claims about the accuracy, currency or completeness of the information on its site, and that the user assumes the risk of verifying any materials used or relied on. Check what a web list shows against the file.
Getting a file from DEM
A listing says a record exists. The reports and letters are in the file. DEM's Office of Customer and Technical Assistance (OCTA) coordinates file reviews for several areas of the Department, among them site remediation files, emergency response files on oil spills and aboveground tank registrations, septic folders, leaking and registered underground tanks, underground injection control, and the National Priorities List and landfills. The DEM File Reviews page sets out the route:
- Submit DEM's Request to Inspect and/or Copy Public Records form, linked from the DEM File Reviews page.
- DEM says file reviews are scheduled within 10 business days after the request is received, and are conducted in OCTA on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
- To schedule a review, DEM gives the mailbox Dem.filereview@dem.ri.gov and fax (401) 222-3810. OCTA is at 235 Promenade Street, Suite 260, Providence, RI 02908.
- DEM says all file reviews are subject to RIGL 38-2.
- Under R.I. Gen. Laws § 38-2-3, every person or entity may inspect or copy a public body's records, apart from those the chapter excludes, and need not give a reason. A public body has ten business days from receiving a request to permit the inspection or copying. If it does not, it must explain in writing at once, and may take up to twenty more business days where it can show the request's size, the requests pending or the difficulty of finding or copying the records makes that necessary to avoid an undue burden. Under § 38-2-7, a request not met in time counts as denied, unless the time was extended that way.
Sources
Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management pages, read October 13, 2026:
- Welcome, last modified October 8, 2026.
- Environmental Protection, last modified November 10, 2022.
- Office of Land Revitalization and Sustainable Materials Management, last modified October 6, 2026.
- Office of Land Revitalization and Sustainable Materials Management Site Inventories, last modified June 5, 2026.
- Underground Storage Tank Management Program, last modified September 30, 2026.
- Site Remediation Program, last modified July 27, 2026.
- Rhode Island’s History in Brownfields, last modified June 27, 2023.
- Aboveground Storage Tanks (ASTs), last modified November 10, 2025.
- Emergency Response, last modified March 25, 2025.
- DEM File Reviews, last modified September 24, 2026.
- Disclaimer, Links, Copyright, Privacy, Cookies, Security and Civil Rights Notices, last modified October 4, 2024.
Rhode Island General Assembly pages, read October 13, 2026, no modified date shown:
- R.I. Gen. Laws § 38-2-3, Right to inspect and copy records; its history lists P.L. 2016, ch. 512 as the latest amendment.
- R.I. Gen. Laws § 38-2-7, Denial of access; its history lists P.L. 2012, chs. 448 and 454 as the latest amendments.