Wisconsin
Historic Registry of Waste Disposal Sites
The Historic Registry of Waste Disposal Sites is the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources' (DNR) record of old waste disposal sites, first issued as a printed publication before DNR had online databases. Beginning in 2000, EPA funded a DNR review of the 4,100 entries in the 1999 edition, by site visits and a review of state files, to judge how accurate and significant they were; DNR says part of the Registry, mainly in southeastern Wisconsin, has not yet been reviewed. DNR still posts the Registry as a spreadsheet.
In a Phase I ESA
The Registry is a Wisconsin form of the state landfill and solid waste disposal site records that ASTM E1527-21 lists as a standard source, for old disposal sites, some never licensed, recorded before DNR's databases. The general reading of a landfill listing is on the landfills and solid waste page. Licensed landfills are on Licensed solid waste landfills. Four Wisconsin details shape how to read it.
- The review moved entries, and archived many. DNR says sites where disposal was known were often already licensed and in its Solid and Hazardous Waste Information Management System (SHWIMS), and that sites whose files showed disposal without a license were added to SHWIMS. Many entries were archived after screening: where no waste was found, the waste had been removed or was no longer regulated, there was no credible evidence the site existed, or the entry repeated another. So do not read a missing or archived entry as proof that no waste was ever disposed of at a place.
- The spreadsheet is old. DNR says the last full update with every county listed was July 22, 2013, and that it keeps the spreadsheet online because some of it, particularly in southeastern Wisconsin, has not yet been reviewed and moved into a database.
- It is not a guide to licenses or exemptions. DNR says the spreadsheet does not give every license number for facilities that are now licensed, and should not be used to judge the exemptions for unlicensed waste disposal sites that Wisconsin Act 418 (Wis. Stat. ยง 292.23) provided in 2006 for local governments and private parties.
- Wells need approval nearby. DNR says a new water supply well needs its approval if it is to go less than 1,200 feet from a waste disposal site. Its Well Driller Viewer maps setback and approval information for well drillers.
DNR's pages disagree on its older waste records
DNR's waste disposal sites page and its regional specialists page say SHWIMS on the Web held outdated information and is no longer supported, and the specialists page adds that no public tool now gives access to that data. The specialists page says to email a regional licensing, reporting and compliance specialist for the data; the waste disposal sites page says to contact one or to email DNRWasteManagement@wisconsin.gov. DNR's landfills page, though, describes its link to the historic and current disposal sites page as a searchable online database, and DNR's remediation database page still links SHWIMS. This handbook did not open SHWIMS.
Where to look a site up
- The Historic Registry of Waste Disposal Sites spreadsheet, with a separate explanation of its columns, both linked from DNR's Historic and current waste disposal sites page. This handbook did not open either file.
- For a site where contamination spread into soil or groundwater, DNR points to its remediation database and the RR Sites Map; see BRRTS and RR Sites Map. The map has layers for landfill and historical waste site points and areas, and a 1,200-foot landfill buffer.
- DNR's Well Driller Viewer, for setbacks from waste sites.
- For building on an old dump, see Development on historic fill sites and licensed landfills.
Getting the file
DNR says anyone with a question about a site in the Registry may ask for an appointment to review DNR's file, through the regional licensing, reporting and compliance specialist for the site's county, listed on DNR's regional specialists page. DNR warns that most of these files are old and may be incomplete, and that sometimes the Registry's screening sheet and its attachments are all there is. DNR prefers records requests by email, to DNRRecordsResponse@wisconsin.gov, and accepts them in any format; see Public Records Request.
Sources
Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources pages, read October 13, 2026, no modified date shown: