Wisconsin

Leaking Underground Storage Tank (LUST) activities

Agency Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources

In Wisconsin, a leaking underground storage tank (LUST) case is an activity in the Bureau for Remediation and Redevelopment Tracking System (BRRTS), the cleanup database of the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR). DNR's glossary for the database describes a LUST activity as contamination that came from a leaking underground tank, and numbers every one of them starting with 03. DNR says its oversight covers the cleanup whenever petroleum is released from a storage tank, and its Remediation and Redevelopment (RR) Program runs that work.

In a Phase I ESA

LUST activities are the Wisconsin form of the state leaking storage tank records that ASTM E1527-21 lists as a standard source. The general reading of a leaking tank listing is on the LUST page. Three Wisconsin details shape how to read one.

The tank registration is another department's record. DNR says the Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection (DATCP) keeps Wisconsin's database of registered tanks and regulates both underground and aboveground tank systems. A LUST activity is DNR's record of the release; for the tanks themselves, look to DATCP. This handbook does not read DATCP's pages.
Aboveground tank releases may be filed under another type. The same glossary names aboveground tanks among the sources of Environmental Repair Program (ERP) activities, the type for discharges that are not LUST cases. Where a property had aboveground tanks, search ERP activities as well.
A PECFA number means state reimbursement was sought. BRRTS can be searched by an 11-digit number from the Petroleum Environmental Cleanup Fund Award (PECFA), which repaid eligible costs of petroleum cleanups. Only sites that applied to it carry one. DNR's glossary says PECFA has not been an active program since June 2020. Its rule is ch. NR 747, Wis. Adm. Code.

Who reports, and who oversees

DNR says state law (Wis. Stat. § 292.11, the Spill Law) requires tank system owners and operators, and the owners of property with tank systems, to report a discharge to the environment at once. The cleanup that follows is run under DNR's investigation and remediation rules, chapters NR 700 to 754 of the Wisconsin Administrative Code, described on the NR 700 rule series page. DATCP's rule for installing, registering, maintaining and abandoning petroleum tanks is ATCP 93.

When a tank is closed, DATCP's guidance summarizes the sampling requirements, called a tank system site assessment (TSSA). DNR asks that the TSSA report be sent both to the regional RR Program mailbox and project manager, if known, and to DATCP's Bureau of Weights and Measures. So for a tank removed from the property, ask DNR as well as DATCP for the closure assessment, even where no release case was opened.

DNR also pays to remove some abandoned tanks. Its Tank Removal Program sets aside $100,000 a year for state-funded removal of eligible abandoned underground petroleum tank systems, which DNR picks and ranks with DATCP and the Wisconsin Department of Justice. Under Wis. Stat. § 292.64 the state may pay where DNR finds a tank abandoned and the owner unable to pay; the owner signs an access agreement and agrees to a lien on the property once the work is done.

Where to look a site up

BRRTS on the Web can limit a search to one activity type, so a search for LUST activities by address, municipality or county is the place to start. It also takes a PECFA number.
The RR Sites Map shows open activities and, in its Closed Activities layer, the LUST and ERP activities DNR found met the requirements for case closure. See RR Sites Map for what the map leaves off.
DNR's Groundwater Retrieval Network page says more groundwater data for leaking tank, spill and remediation sites may be in the site files, and points to BRRTS to find them.
DNR's tank pages link DATCP's tank registration database, which this handbook did not open.

Getting the file

The BRRTS page says to reach the DNR staff assigned to an active site through the contact name on its Activity Details page, and to ask an RR program specialist about a closed site; the specialists are on DNR's RR Program staff contacts page. For a records request, DNR prefers email to DNRRecordsResponse@wisconsin.gov. Its public records page names leaking underground tanks among the kinds of records to list in a request, and 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: