Tennessee Statewide Petroleum Incident Logging System (SPILS)

The Statewide Petroleum Incident Logging System (SPILS) is a program of the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation (TDEC) that logs incidents along Tennessee's roadways where a reportable quantity of petroleum products is released to the environment. TDEC says the program was created on July 1, 2017, within TDEC, and lists it under its Solid Waste Program.

In a Phase I ESA

ASTM E1527-21 does not name this record among its standard record sources. The federal spill record is described on the ERNS page. SPILS is the Tennessee record to ask about when a property fronts a road where a fuel spill is known or suspected.

• Roadways and petroleum only. TDEC describes SPILS as tracking incidents where petroleum products are released along roads. Its guidance covers gasoline, diesel fuel, motor oil and transmission fluid spilled as a result of traffic accidents. A release from a storage tank is a different record, underground storage tank releases.
• An incident ends with a letter. TDEC says SPILS ensures that appropriate cleanup standards are applied, remediation is completed, and final reports detailing the response are received and reviewed. Once an incident has been remediated, SPILS issues a closure letter for the Responsible Party's file. Ask for the final report and the closure letter.
• Two size categories. TDEC's guidance sorts traffic accident spills into those contaminating environmental media with less than twenty-five gallons of petroleum and those with more. It defines contaminating environmental media as petroleum that spills directly onto, or migrates from paved surfaces into, gravel, soils or water.
• The program dates from 2017. The program was created on July 1, 2017. The pages read do not say whether earlier roadway spills were entered.

TDEC notes that its spill cleanup guidance is not emergency response guidance.

How a spill reaches TDEC

TDEC says spills in Tennessee are to be reported to the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency, at 1-800-262-3300, which then notifies other state agencies such as the solid waste program. Spills that cause a sheen on surface waters require notification of that agency and then of TDEC's Division of Water Resources. So a roadway spill can leave records with more than one office.

Where to look a site up

The SPILS page links TDEC's Solid Waste Dataviewer. TDEC says that viewer searches facility information, inspection reports, complaints and forms. The pages read do not say whether SPILS incidents can be searched there, so ask the program directly: SPILS is at 615-979-0156 and TDEC.SPILS@tn.gov.

Getting the file

TDEC's Public Records Request page carries the department's records request route. The pages read do not say how long SPILS keeps an incident file.

Sources

Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation pages, read October 7, 2026:

• Tennessee Statewide Petroleum Incident Logging System (SPILS), last modified October 2, 2026.
• Solid Waste Program, last modified September 23, 2026.
• Tennessee Waste Management Branch, last modified September 23, 2026.
• Public Records Request, last modified November 3, 2025.