Office of Emergency Response

The Office of Emergency Response of the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management (DEM) is, in DEM's words, "Rhode Island's first line of defense in protecting public health, safety, and welfare in an environmental emergency." DEM says its responders are tasked with answering and remediating incidents posing imminent dangers, which may range from an oil spill of a few gallons to a petroleum tanker rollover, and from an abandoned chemical drum to CBRNE and WMD incidents. It says the responders are on call 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and respond to over 700 calls each year; the page gives no date for that number. The office also registers and oversees aboveground storage tanks; see the Aboveground Storage Tank Program.

In a Phase I ESA

ASTM E1527-21 does not name state spill lists among its standard record sources. The federal counterpart of a state spill list is the emergency response record described on the ERNS page. Rhode Island spill records still matter, because a spill response can be the only record of a release that never became a cleanup case.

• Any amount is to be reported. DEM asks that any oil (petroleum) or hazardous materials release, or a release suspected to be imminent, be reported by phone, of any amount, whether on land, into water or into the air.
• The pages read link no spill list. No searchable list of spills or responses is linked from the pages read. DEM's File Reviews page lists Emergency Response among the areas it coordinates, and describes it as responses to oil spills and aboveground storage tank registrations.
• A map shows chemical facilities. The office's page links the RI Chemical Management and Climate Resilience Map, which DEM says displays chemical, environmental and emergency management data. Its layers include Toxic Release Inventory facilities, EPCRA Tier II facilities, RCRA facilities, community wellhead areas, sole source aquifers, groundwater reservoirs, hurricane evacuation zones, flood maps and a 2020 aerial photo of Rhode Island. This handbook did not open it.

Where to look a site up

• The Emergency Response page links the Chemical Management and Climate Resilience Map and an instructions file for it.
• To report a spill, DEM gives (401) 537-4533 during normal business hours (Monday to Friday, 8:30 to 4:00), and (401) 222-3070 at any time, which it describes as the DEM Hot-line of the Environmental Police, the Division of Law Enforcement.

Getting the file

DEM's file review route covers emergency response files; see DEM File Reviews. Submit DEM's Request to Inspect and/or Copy Public Records form. DEM says file reviews are scheduled within 10 business days after the request is received and are conducted in its Office of Customer and Technical Assistance on Tuesdays and Thursdays. To schedule a review, DEM gives the mailbox Dem.filereview@dem.ri.gov.

Sources

Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management pages, read October 13, 2026:

• Emergency Response, last modified March 25, 2025.
• Report a Spill or Release, last modified March 26, 2026.
• DEM File Reviews, last modified September 24, 2026.