West Virginia

Spills and environmental complaints

Agency West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection

West Virginia spills and environmental complaints

Spills in West Virginia are reported to the emergency spill line of the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection (WVDEP), 1-800-642-3074. The same number is given on the agency's pages for tanks, hazardous waste, oil and gas, and mining. Complaints that are not emergencies go to the Environmental Enforcement section of the Division of Water and Waste Management, which has an online complaint form and regional offices.

In a Phase I ESA

ASTM E1527-21 does not name state spill lists among its standard record sources. The federal counterpart of a state spill list is the emergency response record described on the ERNS page. Five West Virginia details shape how to use the state record.

One number, several responders. WVDEP's Homeland Security and Emergency Response group calls response to chemical and other hazardous materials spills its highest profile job, and serves as the agency's liaison with other state and federal agencies in emergencies. Within Environmental Enforcement, the Water and Waste section says it places top priority on response to spills and fish kills and investigates them to determine their impact, their source and the responsible party. The Hazardous Waste section investigates spills to ensure proper cleanup and to determine compliance. So ask more than one office about an incident.
No public spill list was found. The pages read post no searchable list of spill reports. Treat a spill at a property as something to ask WVDEP about, not something a listing will show.
Tank releases have their own rules. Those records are on the Leaking Underground Storage Tank Program and Leaking Aboveground Storage Tanks pages.
A complaint is a public record. The Environmental Enforcement complaint form covers dam safety, underground storage tanks, hazardous waste, and water and waste. The privacy notice WVDEP prints beside the form's link says the information a person provides will be part of a public record and can be released, and that a complainant may stay anonymous.
Closing factories have an inspection program. WVDEP says that in 1995 Environmental Enforcement began a program of inspections to evaluate environmental impacts, or potential impacts, at industrial and manufacturing facilities that are moving, closing, ceasing operations, or have been closed. Its stated focus is to ensure that a facility does not leave contamination that the state or federal government will have to deal with. WVDEP posts an Industrial Facility Closure Guidance Document, marked as revised in March 2010. For a shuttered plant, ask whether a closure inspection was done.

Environmental Enforcement says it promotes compliance with six acts: the Solid Waste Management Act, the Water Pollution Control Act, the Groundwater Protection Act, the Hazardous Waste Management Act, the Underground Storage Tank Act and the Dam Safety Act.

Where to look a site up

There is no list to search on the pages read. The offices to ask are these.

Environmental Enforcement's Charleston headquarters, which also serves the southwest region: 304-926-0470.
Its regional offices: Fairmont (northwest), 304-368-3960; Romney (northeast), 304-822-7266; Fayetteville (southeast), 304-574-4465; Parkersburg (Ohio River), 304-420-4635.
The Homeland Security and Emergency Response Office in Elkview: 304-558-5938, Monday to Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.

To report a spill, WVDEP gives its spill line, 1-800-642-3074, and the National Response Center, 800-424-8802. Other kinds of complaint have their own routes on WVDEP's Report a Complaint page: air quality, open dumps, and abandoned mine land emergencies.

Getting the file

The pages read on spills and complaints name no records route of their own. WVDEP says most of the records it keeps are subject to disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act; the request goes through the electronic form on its Request Information page or by email to depfoia@wv.gov. Give the address, the county, the date range and the substance, and ask for spill reports, complaint investigations and any facility closure inspection. See the Application Enhancer page.

Sources

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