Vermont
Public Records Requests
The Vermont Agency of Natural Resources (ANR), the agency the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) belongs to, takes requests for its records under Vermont's Public Records Law. ANR says the law requires it to give the public access to agency records unless a specific exemption in the law protects them. DEC's pages send a requester to ANR's page through the Request public information link in their footer.
In a Phase I ESA
A listing says a record exists. The reports and letters are in the file. Four details decide how to ask.
- Search first. ANR asks that you consider searching DEC's Environmental Research Tool (ERT) for relevant records before sending a request. It describes the ERT as a database of selected permits for waste management (hazardous sites and spills among them), watershed (stormwater and wetlands) and more.
- Any person may ask. Under 1 V.S.A. § 316, any person may inspect or copy a public record of a public agency. A state agency's records can be inspected on any day but a Saturday, Sunday or legal holiday, from 9 to 12 in the morning and from 1 to 4 in the afternoon.
- Three business days. ANR's guide for its own staff says that, unless the deadline is extended, ANR must answer within three business days, not counting the day the request arrives; a request that comes in on a weekend, a state holiday or after business hours counts as received on the next business day. In the circumstances the law lists, among them collecting records from field facilities or establishments separate from the office handling the request, ANR can extend the deadline on its own to ten business days from receipt. A longer extension needs the requester's agreement, and so does release of the records in batches. The guide says it creates no rights for the public and no obligations for ANR.
- Charges start at four hours. ANR's page says it charges for a request once producing the records takes more than four hours, and points to the Secretary of State's Uniform Charges Schedule. It asks that requests be as specific as possible to keep fees down, and its guide tells staff to send the requester a cost estimate when a request may reach that threshold. The guide says ANR charges only when it provides copies: a requester who only inspects the records is not charged, however long the request takes.
How to ask
- Online. ANR's online public records request form.
- By email. To one of the records officers or records liaisons listed on ANR's Public Records page. For the Waste Management and Prevention Division, the page gives ANR.WMPDFOIA@vermont.gov.
ANR's guide says staff acknowledge a request in writing, giving the date it was received and the request as they understand it, and ask the requester to clarify a request that is unclear or very broad. A request made by voice is written up on an intake form and acknowledged in writing in the same way.
Sources
Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation page, read October 13, 2026, no modified date shown:
Vermont Agency of Natural Resources pages, read October 13, 2026:
- Public Records, no modified date shown.
- Responding to Requests for Access to Public Records Under the Vermont Public Records Law: A Guide for Agency of Natural Resources Employees, dated April 30, 2025.
Vermont General Assembly page, read October 13, 2026, which says its statutes include the actions of the 2025 session: