South Dakota
Brownfields Program
The South Dakota Brownfields Program sits within the Inspection, Compliance, and Remediation Program of the Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources (DANR). DANR describes a brownfield as property whose expansion, reuse or redevelopment may be made harder by a hazardous substance, pollutant or contaminant that is or may be present, and says the program currently has help available for redeveloping such properties. DANR says South Dakota has had brownfields pilots and assessment projects since 1996.
In a Phase I ESA
This handbook reads the program's site information as the South Dakota form of the state brownfields records that ASTM E1527-21 lists as a standard source. The pairing rests on a link label: the program page's link titled SD Brownfields Site Information opens DANR's Tanks and Spills Map, which this handbook did not open. The general reading of a brownfields listing is on the Brownfields page.
Three South Dakota details shape how to read it.
- The department can use an EPA grant for assessments. DANR says it received its first Targeted Brownfields Assessment grant from EPA in October 2002, and that the department can use the grant for assessment work at brownfield sites: site assessment, site characterization and response, and cleanup planning and design. Cities, counties and local development groups may apply.
- Funds need a release or the threat of one. DANR says assessment funds may be used only where there is a release, or a substantial threat of one, of a hazardous substance, or of a pollutant or contaminant whose release may seriously and imminently endanger public health or welfare.
- Sites compete for money. The program works by application, one application per site. DANR sets no limit on how many sites may be submitted, but funds are limited; it asks an applicant with several sites to rank them, and sites are ranked when requests exceed the money. DANR expects factors such as how contaminated a site is and how committed the community is to cleanup and reuse to count in that ranking.
DANR's page also links program documents: a brownfields work plan for 2025 and one for 2027, a spreadsheet of response actions planned for 2026 and one of response actions completed in 2025. This handbook did not open them. For a property that may have had a state brownfields assessment, ask DANR whether the file holds the assessment report.
The program's rules are linked from its page as the SD Brownfields Administrative Rules.
Where to look a site up
- DANR's Brownfields page links SD Brownfields Site Information, which opens the Tanks & Spills Map. The same page points to that map for every known environmental event.
- DANR's Inspection, Compliance, and Remediation Program is at (605) 773-3296.
Getting the file
DANR's page footer links Request Public Records, an address on the state's sd.gov portal that this handbook did not open. The pages read do not say where brownfield assessment files are kept or what a request must include.
Sources
South Dakota Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources pages, read October 13, 2026, no modified date shown: