Wisconsin
Bureau for Remediation and Redevelopment Tracking System (BRRTS)
The Bureau for Remediation and Redevelopment Tracking System (BRRTS) of the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) is a database of public information on reports of possible contamination, contaminated property, and cleanup and redevelopment work. Its online version is called BRRTS on the Web (BOTW). DNR's RR Sites Map draws on the same records and links back to them.
In a Phase I ESA
ASTM E1527-21 does not name a state's cleanup tracking database among its standard record sources. BRRTS is not one record type: it holds the activities behind several. Its leaking tank cases are on Leaking Underground Storage Tank (LUST) activities, its voluntary cleanups on Voluntary Party Liability Exemption (VPLE), and the activity type this handbook reads as the state Superfund equivalent on Environmental Repair Program (ERP) activities. One BRRTS search can answer several rows of the Wisconsin overview.
What the record shows
DNR gives every activity a 10-digit number. The first two digits name the activity type, the next two the county, and the last six are an identifier the database assigns. The BRRTS glossary gives these types and prefixes, summarized here in our words:
| Prefix | Activity type | What it covers |
|---|---|---|
| 02 | Environmental Repair Program (ERP) | Discharges or pollution that are not LUST cases, from sources such as industrial spills, buried containers, closed landfills and aboveground tanks |
| 03 | Leaking Underground Storage Tank (LUST) | Contamination from a leaking underground tank |
| 04 | Spills | A hazardous substance discharge that may harm health, welfare or the environment; DNR says these are usually cleaned up fast |
| 06 | Voluntary Party Liability Exemption (VPLE) | Properties entered in the program under Wis. Stat. ยง 292.15 |
| 07 | General Property (GP) | Records of liability exemptions, liability clarifications and cleanup agreements |
| 09 | No Action Required by RR Program (NAR) | A discharge that happened or probably happened, where DNR decided the responsible party need not investigate or clean up |
| 11 | Legacy Sediment | Old discharges to navigable waters still harming the environment, with no viable responsible party found |
| 13 | Off-Sites | Properties reached by contamination from another property; the details sit under the source property's activity |
| 15 | Materials Management | Properties that took contaminated material from a cleanup site under ch. NR 718, Wis. Adm. Code |
| 16 | Facility-wide | An umbrella over a facility's activities that one negotiated agreement covers |
The glossary also lists Abandoned Container (AC) activities, with no prefix given: containers of possibly hazardous contents that were inspected and recovered with no known discharge. A container that did leak is tracked as a spill. The glossary's own worked example calls 07-25-486955 an ERP activity, though the list above gives 07 to General Property, so read the activity type the record states rather than the prefix alone.
An activity is Open while work goes on, and Closed once all cleanup requirements are met and DNR has issued a case closure letter. Not every activity has a full street address or a facility ID. A jurisdiction field names the body with cleanup jurisdiction: DNR's RR Program, DNR's Waste and Materials Management Program, or DATCP. DNR adds that some entries, under the AC and NAR types and some GP activities, record places where an investigation found no contamination, or contamination of little or no impact.
DNR's disclaimers matter for a records review. It says BRRTS holds only public information DNR has received, drawn from many sources, so it may have omissions, errors and lag. A listing may still name the original responsible party after the property has been sold. The location given by Public Land Survey System (PLSS) may not match the reports, and DNR may correct it.
Where to look a site up
- BRRTS on the Web searches by name, address, municipality, county, activity number, facility ID, PECFA number, substance, jurisdiction, status and dates, among other fields. DNR advises entering less of an address to catch spelling variants and abbreviations, and not using wildcard characters.
- The RR Sites Map shows the mapped activities; see RR Sites Map.
- DNR's database page links pages it labels Open Spill Incidents and Supplemental Datasets, which this handbook did not open.
- For help finding an activity, DNR points to its RR program specialists on the RR Program staff contacts page.
Getting the file
DNR's map page says the database holds activity information and the related documents that are available, and its residual contamination page says those documents may include the closure letter, property maps and contaminant data. For more than what is online, the BRRTS page sends you to the DNR staff member named toward the foot of the Activity Details page; for a closed site, to an RR program specialist. DNR prefers records requests by email, to DNRRecordsResponse@wisconsin.gov, and accepts them in any format. Its public records page lists the BRRTS activity number among the identifiers worth giving; see Public Records Request.
Sources
Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources pages, read October 13, 2026, no modified date shown: