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West Virginia environmental records for a Phase I ESA

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West Virginia programs

West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection 19

West Virginia environmental records for a Phase I ESA

This section is written from the pages of one state agency, the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection (WVDEP). Most of the records a Phase I review meets sit in two of its divisions. The Division of Water and Waste Management (DWWM) oversees hazardous waste, solid waste and underground storage tank sites, and the Tanks Unit of its Environmental Enforcement section covers aboveground and underground storage tanks and the leaks from both. The Division of Land Restoration (DLR) holds the Office of Environmental Remediation (OER), which administers the voluntary cleanup, brownfields and Superfund programs, and DLR also administers the landfill closure and mine reclamation programs. The Office of Oil and Gas regulates the exploration, drilling, storage and production of oil and natural gas. This page maps each kind of record ASTM E1527-21 asks for to the West Virginia program behind it, and links a page on each program.

The standard record types, in West Virginia

ASTM record type West Virginia program WVDEP office
State Superfund equivalent The pages read name no separate state list. See the Superfund Section, whose programs work with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency under the federal Superfund law, and the Groundwater Remediation Program. OER and DWWM
Landfills and solid waste sites Solid Waste Program for permitted facilities and the Landfill Closure Assistance Program for landfills the state closes. Cleaned-up open dumps are a separate record, on the Pollution Prevention and Open Dump Program page. DWWM and DLR
Leaking storage tanks Leaking Underground Storage Tank Program and Leaking Aboveground Storage Tanks. A leaking underground tank site cleaned up to risk-based standards may be in the UECA-LUST Program. DWWM Tanks Unit, and OER for UECA-LUST
Registered storage tanks Underground Storage Tanks and Aboveground Storage Tanks DWWM Tanks Unit
State hazardous waste facilities No single West Virginia list is paired here. The records that bear on it are on the RCRA Hazardous Waste page. DWWM
Institutional and engineering controls Land Use Covenants OER
Voluntary cleanup sites Voluntary Remediation Program OER
Brownfields sites No West Virginia list is paired here. The pages read post no statewide list of brownfield sites; WVDEP's assessments and cleanup loans are on the Brownfields Assistance Program page. OER

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

Other West Virginia records worth reading

These are not on ASTM's standard list, but each answers a question a West Virginia Phase I runs into.

One agency, but one site can be in two divisions

A search that stops at one office can leave another office's records unread. Three splits matter most.

  • Leaking underground tanks. The Tanks Unit has four groups: aboveground storage tanks, underground storage tanks, leaking aboveground storage tanks and leaking underground storage tanks. WVDEP says a leak from a regulated underground storage tank may be remediated through one of three programs: traditional enforcement, the UECA-LUST Program or the Voluntary Remediation Program. The first is with the Tanks Unit in DWWM. The other two are administered by OER, in DLR. For a former gas station, check both.
  • Mine sites. The Office of Abandoned Mine Lands and Reclamation deals with dangers resulting from mining before 1977. The Office of Special Reclamation reclaims coal mining permits whose bonds were forfeited since August 1977. Permits for mines are with a third office, the Division of Mining and Reclamation.
  • Injection wells. DWWM regulates Class 5 wells, the Office of Oil and Gas oversees permitting of Class II and Class III wells, and the Division of Mining and Reclamation oversees all mining injection permits.

Searches that cross WVDEP's programs

  • The Tanks Reporting Portal. WVDEP says the public uses it to obtain AST, LAST, UST and LUST tank related data.
  • Application Enhancer. WVDEP says it has made most of its files available to the public through this searchable online database. A login is required, and WVDEP posts instructions for it.
  • The e-Permitting Applications Search, the public query of the agency's Electronic Submission System (ESS). WVDEP says permits for the Division of Air Quality, the Division of Mining and Reclamation and DWWM are searchable through it, and that no account is needed.
  • WVDEP's Data Center page gathers these with the oil and gas searches, the mining permit searches and the agency's maps.

Getting a file from WVDEP

A listing says a record exists. The reports and letters are in the file. Look in Application Enhancer first. For what is not there, the route is a request under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). WVDEP says most of the records it keeps are subject to disclosure, and that all requests to review agency files must be made in writing.

  • Use the electronic form on WVDEP's Request Information page, or email depfoia@wv.gov. WVDEP says requests may also be sent by fax or U.S. Mail.
  • WVDEP first sends a response acknowledging the request. It gives the date the request was received, the divisions or offices that will respond, and a fee schedule.
  • Staff of those divisions or offices then say whether they hold files on the request and how to view or receive them. If the files are large, WVDEP asks the requester to come in to view them.

The Tanks Unit says it is still scanning its leaking underground storage tank documents into Application Enhancer, so a FOIA request may be needed for those files. WVDEP's Charleston headquarters is at 304-926-0499.

Sources

West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection pages, read October 7, 2026, no modified date shown:

Maintained by Barrow. General reference only, not legal or professional advice. Barrow is not affiliated with or endorsed by any government agency. See how Barrow drafts the report