Wisconsin

Environmental Repair Program (ERP) activities

Agency Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources

In the cleanup database of the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR), the Bureau for Remediation and Redevelopment Tracking System (BRRTS), an Environmental Repair Program (ERP) activity is a discharge of a hazardous substance, or other environmental pollution, that is not a leaking underground storage tank case. DNR's examples of where these come from are industrial spills, buried containers of hazardous substances, closed landfills and aboveground storage tanks. ERP activity numbers begin with 02. BRRTS records which body holds cleanup jurisdiction over each activity: DNR's Remediation and Redevelopment (RR) Program, its Waste and Materials Management Program, or the Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection.

In a Phase I ESA

This handbook reads ERP activities as the Wisconsin form of the state equivalent to the federal Superfund lists, which ASTM E1527-21 names as a standard source. The pages read call no Wisconsin list a state Superfund list; the pairing is the handbook's reading. The general reading of a state Superfund listing is on the state Superfund equivalent page.

Three details shape how to read an ERP listing.

It is a wide category. An ERP activity can be anything from an industrial spill to a closed landfill. DNR's hazardous waste facility page also links each facility that has corrective action obligations to its case in BRRTS. Read what the activity records, not only its type.
The state may be paying. DNR can spend state money at what it calls environmental repair sites, as set out below. The BRRTS search has a field for financial assistance, and the RR Sites Map has layers for sites where DNR gave money or hired a consultant.
Federal Superfund sites are tracked too. DNR's RR Program oversees Superfund sites, and the RR Sites Map has a Superfund NPL layer, which also shows proposed, deleted and Superfund alternative sites. DNR's database page links a PDF it labels Superfund Sites in Wisconsin, which this handbook did not open.

When the state pays

DNR says that under Wis. Stat. § 20.370(2)(dv) it may draw on the state's Environmental Fund to respond where a site threatens public health and the environment and needs action, either right away or over the long term. It calls this a state-funded response, and says such cases generally fall in three groups:

environmental repair sites under Wis. Stat. § 292.31, where the party behind the contamination cannot be found, or will not or cannot pay for the remedy;
spills under Wis. Stat. § 292.11 that threaten health or the environment and must be dealt with at once;
property with abandoned containers of a hazardous substance, under Wis. Stat. § 292.41.

The money can pay for investigation, landfill caps, temporary drinking water for households whose supply is contaminated, groundwater treatment, construction oversight, and running and maintaining cleanup systems. DNR hires consultants and contractors to do the work, and once a project is complete it tries to recover the cost.

What the record shows

An ERP activity is Open while work goes on and Closed once all cleanup requirements are met and DNR has issued a case closure letter. Closed ERP activities where contamination reached soil, groundwater or other media appear on the RR Sites Map's Closed Activities layer, once mapped. A closure can leave contamination in place under continuing obligations, and the closure letter states them. Where one negotiated agreement covers several activities at a large site, BRRTS groups them under a Facility-wide activity (prefix 16).

Where to look a site up

BRRTS on the Web can limit a search to ERP activities. See BRRTS for its other types and limits.
The RR Sites Map shows open and closed activities, and its layers for Superfund sites and continuing obligations. See RR Sites Map for what it leaves off.

Getting the file

The BRRTS page sends you to the DNR staff member named on an active site's Activity Details page, and to an RR program specialist for a closed one; the specialists are on DNR's RR Program staff contacts page. For a records request, DNR prefers email to DNRRecordsResponse@wisconsin.gov; see Public Records Request.

Sources

Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources pages, read October 13, 2026, no modified date shown: