Is there a Superfund site, cleanup site or leaking fuel tank near this house?
Search the federal and state environmental records for the area around the house: EPA's Superfund National Priorities List, its facility registry, and the state's cleanup, brownfield, storage-tank and petroleum-discharge records. The search tells you which regulated sites and reported releases are on record nearby, what kind each is, and how far away. It does not tell you whether anything has reached the property. That takes sampling, and usually a professional.
Reviewed by Spatia's editor on 2026-09-30; sources checked 2026-09-30.
The mistake almost everyone makes
Treating a dot on the map as contamination under the house, or a clean map as a clean lot. Most facility records are permits and registrations (a dry cleaner, a gas station, a body shop), not confirmed releases, and a reported release half a mile away says nothing about migration without the groundwater direction and what was released. In the other direction, the records hold only what was reported: a filling station that closed before tank registration began, or a private well fouled by a neighbour's septic system, appears nowhere. Distance and record type are the two facts to read first; neither is a conclusion.
How to check it
Search by distance, and keep on-property and nearby records apart
A record on the property itself is a different question from one nearby: as the future owner you may inherit the site's history, and that is when the federal All Appropriate Inquiries process and a Phase I assessment come into play. A nearby record raises questions about groundwater and vapour, which are answered by distance, direction and what was released.
Read what kind of record it is
A Superfund National Priorities List site, a facility registration, an enforcement history and a state cleanup case with a status are four different things. A closed cleanup case may carry a restriction on the deed, which is a fact about the property even though the cleanup is over. Read the record type and its status before its distance.
For petroleum, read tanks and discharges separately
Florida registers storage tanks and separately tracks reported discharges and their cleanup status. A registered tank is a tank, not a leak; a discharge report has a date, a product and a status, and that status is what you want. Other states keep the same two lists under different names.
Ask where the water comes from
On a private well, test the water; the county health department publishes what to test for and which laboratories are certified. On a municipal system, the utility publishes an annual consumer confidence report. A nearby record matters far more to a well than to a tap fed from miles away.
Decide whether to escalate
For a home purchase, a records review plus one targeted test (well water, or soil vapour near a former gas station) is often proportionate. A Phase I environmental site assessment is the recognised process when liability protection or a lender requires it, and it is professional work that a records search does not replace.
What this still does not tell you
- A nearby record is not contamination on the property; only sampling can establish that.
- The records hold only what was reported, and many releases were never reported.
- It is not a Phase I environmental site assessment and does not support the federal landowner-liability defences.
- It is not a substitute for water testing, sampling or an environmental professional, and it is not legal advice.
Who actually decides
- US EPA — Superfund National Priorities List
- US EPA — Facility Registry Service
- US EPA — Enforcement and Compliance History Online
- Florida DEP — storage tank compliance program
- Your county health department — decides what a private well should be tested for and which laboratories are certified