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Utah environmental records for a Phase I ESA

16Program pages

Utah programs

Utah Department of Environmental Quality 16

A Phase I records review in Utah draws mainly on one state agency, the Utah Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ). DEQ's site names five divisions: Air Quality, Drinking Water, Water Quality, Waste Management and Radiation Control, and Environmental Response and Remediation. The Division of Environmental Response and Remediation (DERR) runs the Superfund work, the voluntary cleanup and brownfields programs, the petroleum storage tank programs, the statewide line for environmental incidents and the Tier 2 chemical data. The Division of Waste Management and Radiation Control (DWMRC) runs the hazardous waste, hazardous waste cleanup and solid waste programs. The Division of Water Quality (DWQ) runs underground injection control for Class I, III, IV and V wells. Oil and gas is the exception, set out below. This page maps each kind of record ASTM E1527-21 asks for to the Utah program that holds it, and links a page on each program.

The standard record types, in Utah

ASTM record type Utah program Agency
State Superfund equivalent The pages read name no separate state list. The federal Superfund and federal facility sites DERR works on are on the Superfund Program and Federal Facilities page. DEQ
State hazardous waste facilities Hazardous Waste Facilities Permits, DWMRC's list of the hazardous waste facilities it permits. Cleanups at them are on the Hazardous Waste Cleanup Program (HWCP) page. DEQ
Landfills and solid waste sites Solid Waste Facility Permits DEQ
Leaking storage tanks Leaking Petroleum Storage Tanks (LPST) Program. The pages read link a search of tank files and DEQ's interactive map, not a list of cases; the pairing is the handbook's reading. DEQ
Registered storage tanks Petroleum Storage Tank (PST) Program and Aboveground Petroleum Storage Tanks (APST). The pages read link a search of tank files and DEQ's interactive map, not a list of registered tanks; the pairing is the handbook's reading. DEQ
Institutional and engineering controls Environmental Covenants. Four DEQ program pages each link their own list or page of sites with covenants or controls; the pages read name no single registry, and the pairing is the handbook's reading. DEQ
Voluntary cleanup sites Voluntary Cleanup Program (VCP). The program page links documents it labels Voluntary Cleanup Sites and Sites with a Certificate of Completion; the pairing is the handbook's reading of those labels, and this handbook did not open them. DWMRC's Environmental Cleanup Program, a second voluntary route, is on the Hazardous Waste Cleanup Program (HWCP) page. DEQ
Brownfields sites Brownfields Program. The program page links DERR's Petroleum Brownfields page, which lists petroleum brownfield projects by year from 1999 to 2013; the pages read list no other brownfield sites. DERR's terminology page for DEQ's interactive map also explains a Brownfields Projects term. The pairing is the handbook's reading, and this handbook did not open the map. DEQ

How far each search reaches is on the ASTM search distances page.

Other Utah records worth reading

These are not paired with a record type in the table above, but each answers a question a Utah Phase I runs into.

One agency, with oil and gas elsewhere

DEQ's underground injection page says Class II injection wells in Utah fall under a separate program run by the Utah Division of Oil, Gas and Mining (DOGM), while DWQ runs the program for Class I, III, IV and V wells.

DWMRC describes a shift in who oversees oil and gas waste. Its page on oil and gas exploration and production (E&P) waste says DOGM, part of the Utah Department of Natural Resources, oversaw those wastes for many years, and that the Legislature changed the Solid and Hazardous Waste Act in 2019 after EPA required state solid waste programs to take primary responsibility for them. DWMRC and DOGM drew up an outline of the changes, which DWMRC says became final in March 2023. In a list of what it expected, the page says DWMRC would begin shaping the rules for E&P waste landfarms, landfills and evaporation ponds, and that DOGM would keep regulating waste liquids fit for underground injection. The same page says both agencies gave draft rules to stakeholders in mid-March 2024 and expected to finish formal rulemaking before the end of 2024, and links DWMRC's response to comments on proposed rules R315-321 and R315-322 from a comment period that ended September 3, 2024. It does not say whether the rules took effect.

DERR's aboveground tank rules also leave out tanks tied to oil or gas production and gathering. This handbook did not read DOGM's pages, and the DEQ pages read do not say where records of oil and gas wells or oilfield spills are kept.

DEQ's records online

DEQ links its Interactive Map from its home page and its records pages. DERR says the map shows regulated facilities and cleanup sites across Utah, Superfund sites, underground storage tanks and voluntary cleanup locations among them, and that records on a site can be viewed there as they become available. DERR's map terminology page explains six of the map's terms: brownfields projects, National Priorities List sites, Superfund sites, Toxics Release Inventory sites, UST and leaking UST sites, and VCP sites. DWQ says the map also carries permits, monitoring locations and reported environmental incidents. To find DWMRC's hazardous waste sites, DWMRC says to open the map's Waste Management and Radiation Control tab and then its hazardous waste and used oil tab.

DEQ's records request page says many of the department's records, though not all, can be found free of charge with its online search and the map, and links its Archive Document Search. DERR's record search page notes that not every record can be reviewed electronically. For tanks, DERR's PST page links UST and LUST Files, which it describes as a step-by-step search of the records held electronically, and says not all UST and LUST records are currently available there.

Getting a file from DEQ

A listing says a record exists. The reports and letters are in the file. DEQ takes requests under Utah's Government Records Access and Management Act (GRAMA) on its GRAMA request form, sent to the department or to the division that holds the records. The GRAMA requests page sets out each division's route, the viewing rules and the copy charges. Two points bear on a Phase I request:

  • DERR takes requests at errgrama@utah.gov or (801) 536-4157, by fax at (801) 359-8853, or delivered to its office at 195 North 1950 West in Salt Lake City. Files are viewed by appointment, arranged by calling the GRAMA Coordinator at (801) 536-4100.
  • DWMRC says it does not usually file its records by address, coordinates or parcel number. It asks for details such as the facility name, the EPA ID number, the radiation control license number, or the name of the operator, permittee or licensee. Its requests go to wmrcgrama@utah.gov or (801) 536-0200.

DEQ's page says GRAMA requires it to answer a request within ten working days of receiving it. Section 63G-2-201 of GRAMA gives a person the right, subject to sections 63G-2-203 and 63G-2-204, to inspect a public record without charge and to take a copy during normal working hours. The right does not reach a record that is publicly accessible online once the agency tells the requester where to find it. DEQ's office, at 195 North 1950 West in Salt Lake City (84116), answers at (801) 536-4000, and its line for environmental incidents is (801) 536-4123.

Sources

Utah Department of Environmental Quality pages, read October 13, 2026:

Utah State Legislature page, read October 13, 2026, no modified date shown:

Maintained by Barrow. General reference only, not legal or professional advice. Barrow is not affiliated with any government agency, and neither Barrow nor the information as presented here is endorsed by any state or government agency. See how Barrow drafts the report