Bureau for Remediation and Redevelopment Tracking System (BRRTS) on the Web
The Bureau for Remediation and Redevelopment Tracking System (BRRTS) is a database that provides public information about reports of potential contamination, property with contamination, cleanup activities and redevelopment activities in Wisconsin.
User Search Tips
Enter or select one or more search criteria and press the enter key or click on the search button. Clicking the reset button removes all values from the search form and resets each field to defaults. After submitting your search, you will see a list of activities matching your criteria. The number of activities found and the number of pages produced are shown at the top of each results page.
- Searches are not case-sensitive.
- Searches use all entered values. (For example, a search for "ACME PIPELINE" will search for results that contain both values).
- Do not use wildcard searches (e.g., entering * or % symbols). Entering wildcard symbols will interfere with the results.
- Use the Navigation links found at the top of each page to move between pages without losing your search criteria.
- Hover over or click underlined text and information icons to view more information about the item or selection.
Activity or Location Name
Searches both the Activity and the Location fields. Sometimes the Activity and Location names are the same; however, the Activity field may be more specific to the location of a discharge (e.g., spill at intersection of 1st and 2nd Ave). Find common abbreviations in the "Abbreviations Used In BRRTS" drop-down below.
Activity Status
Selects the current status of an activity. Do not select an Activity Status if you are If unsure of the status of the activity.
- Open - The activity is on-going.
- Closed - All cleanup requirements are completed and a case closure letter from the DNR is issued.
- Historical spills - Tracks spills incidents that occurred between 1978 and 1996 prior to the existence of a formal closure process for spill activities.
Activity Type
Limits a search by type of activity. Find explanation of activity types in the BRRTS Glossary.
Additional Search Characteristics Checkboxes
Select one or more of the boxes to search for records that have the selected characteristic.
Address
Not all activities have a complete street address. Use less specific address criteria when searching this field to avoid omitting locations with spelling differences, abbreviations or lack of a complete street address. For example:
- entering "First Ave" will return addresses such as 123 First Ave or 89 First Avenue
- entering "800" will return addresses like 8000 STH 178th, 1800 Harrison St, etc.
Find common abbreviations in the "Abbreviations Used In BRRTS" drop-down below.
BRRTS Activity Number
Searches by the 10-digit BRRTS activity number if known (e.g., from DNR correspondence). Dashes are not required in this field.
- Some activities have been consolidated. The search results will display the current BRRTS activity number.
- If a BRRTS number was changed, the search results with display the current BRRTS activity number.
Date Ranges
Use caution with date range searches; not all activities have an end date (e.g., General Property, open activities).
DNR Project Manager
Closed activities do not have an assigned DNR project manager.
Facility ID
Not all locations in BRRTS have a Facility ID (FID) number. Searching by FID may be useful where more than one activity may be present at a physical location.
Municipality
The municipality is the physical location and may differ from the mailing address. In BRRTS, the abbreviations and order for municipalities may vary (e.g., "St. Favre, TN," "TN of Saint Favre"). Enter a portion of the municipality for better search results.
Consultant Company
Selects the name of a Consultant Company and limits search results.
County
Selects a Wisconsin county from the drop-down list to limit the search results by county.
Financial
Selects a financial assistance tool (grants, loans or other reimbursements) from the drop-down list and limits search results.
Jurisdiction
Selects the jurisdiction for the activity (DNR Remediation and Redevelopment Program, DNR Waste and Materials Management Program, or Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection) and limits search results.
PECFA Number
Searches by the 11-digit PECFA number. Dashes are not required in this field. Only sites that participated in the Petroleum Environmental Cleanup Fund Award (PECFA) program have a PECFA number.
Substance
Selects a substance from a drop-down list and limits search results for that specific contaminant.
Start date range from and start range to
Searches activities where the start date is within the entered timeframe.
End date range from and end date range to
Searches activities where the end date is within the entered timeframe. Not all activities have an end date (e.g. General Property, open activities).
BRRTS Glossary
Activity Types
Abandoned Container (AC)
An abandoned container (AC) is an activity type with potentially hazardous contents was inspected and recovered. No known discharge to the environment occurred. Containers that discharged a hazardous substance are tracked as Spills (see below for a description).
Environmental Repair Program (ERP)
An ERP is an activity type with discharges of hazardous substances or environmental pollution that are not LUST activities. The discharges or environmental pollution may be from industrial spills, buried containers of hazardous substances, closed landfills, above-ground storage tanks, etc. The BRRTS activity number for ERP activities starts with "02."
Facility-wide
This is an umbrella activity type of a subset of activities at a facility that are part of the same negotiated agreement. Generally, these activity types are large sites with continuing operations that have smaller releases over time. There may also be some activities at the same location that should not be part of the Facility-wide Activity Type because they are not covered by the negotiated agreement. Facility-wide activities in BRRTS have an activity number prefix of "16."
General Property (GP)
General Property (GP) is an activity type that consists of records related to liability exemptions, liability clarifications and cleanup agreements. The BRRTS activity number for GP activities starts with "07."
Leaking Underground Storage Tank (LUST)
Leaking Underground Storage Tank (LUST) is an activity type with contamination that resulted from a leaking underground storage tank. The BRRTS activity number for LUST activities starts with "03."
Legacy Sediment
Legacy Sediment is an activity type where historical discharges occurred to navigable waterways and the contamination is still causing adverse effects to the environment. These sites have no viable responsible party identified and are often located in designated Great Lakes Areas of Concern. The BRRTS activity number for Legacy Sediment activities starts with "11."
Materials Management
Materials Management is an activity type where a property received contaminated materials from a response action site in compliance with Wis. Admin. Code ch. NR 718. The BRRTS activity number for Materials Management activities starts with "15."
No Action Required by RR Program (NAR)
No Action Required by RR Program (NAR) is an activity type for locations where a discharge to the environment occurred or likely occurred and, based on the known information, the DNR has determined that the responsible party does not need to undertake an investigation or cleanup in response to that discharge. The BRRTS activity number for NAR activities starts with "09."
Off-Sites
Off-sites is an activity type consisting of properties affected by contamination from another property. Information about the contamination can be found under the activity for the source property. The BRRTS activity number for Off-sites starts with "13."
Spills
Spills is an activity type where a discharge of a hazardous substance that may adversely impact, or threaten to impact public health, welfare or the environment. Spills are usually cleaned up quickly. The BRRTS activity number for Spills starts with "04."
Voluntary Party Liability Exemption (VPLE)
Voluntary Party Liability Exemption (VPLE) is an activity type of locations where a party entered the VPLE program under Wis. Stat. § 292.15. The voluntary party conducts an environmental investigation and cleanup of an entire property and then receives limits on future liability for that contamination. The BRRTS activity number for VPLE activities starts with "06."
Definitions
BRRTS Activity No.
The DNR assigns a 10-digit tracking number to each activity in the BRRTS application. The first two digits represent the activity type, the second two digits represent the county, and the last six digits are an identifier assigned to the activity by the database. For example, the BRRTS activity number 07-25-486955 represents an ERP activity in Iowa County with an identifier of 486955.
DNR Region
The DNR RR Program divides the state into five geographical regions for staff and project management (Northeast, Northern, Southeast, South Central, West Central).
Facility ID
A Facility ID (FID) number is a unique identifier for facilities regulated or of environmental interest by federal agencies. Not all BRRTS activities have an FID.
Jurisdiction
Searches by the agency, or bureau within the agency, which holds jurisdiction for cleanup actions at an activity.
Petroleum Environmental Cleanup Fund Award (PECFA)
The Petroleum Environmental Cleanup Fund Award (PECFA) was a reimbursement program for eligible response action costs associated with petroleum cleanup. A PECFA number was assigned to activities that applied for this program. After June 2020, PECFA is no longer an active program.
Abbreviations Used In BRRTS
Abbreviation Full Description ASSOC ASSOCIATED ASSN ASSOCIATION AVE AVENUE BLVD BOULEVARD BUS HWY BUSINESS HIGHWAY CTY CITY COMM COMMISSION CO COMPANY CONST CONSTRUCTION COOP COOPERATIVE CORP CORPORATION CNTY COUNTY CTH COUNTY TRUNK HWY DIST DISTRICT DIV DIVISION DR DRIVE E EAST FS FARM SERVICE HWY HIGHWAY INC INCORPORATED LN LANE MFG MANUFACTURING N NORTH OFC OFFICE PLT PLANT RD ROAD SAN SANITARY S SOUTH STH STATE TRUNK HWY ST STREET TN TOWN USH UNITED STATES HWY UW UNIVERSITY VIL VILLAGE W WEST WI WISCONSIN WBS WOOD BURNING SITE Supplemental Datasets
Commonly requested datasets from BRRTS are available on the Supplemental Datasets web page.
Health Information
For information related to potential health impacts from contaminated sites, including toxic chemical fact sheets, see the Wisconsin Department of Health Service's (DHS) Environmental Health Resources.
Contacts
Contact one of our RR program specialists for help finding an activity. To contact the DNR staff assigned to an active remediation site, click on the DNR contact name on the Activity Details page. For inquiries about closed sites, contact an RR program specialist. A list of Remediation and Redevelopment staff members is available on the RR Program Staff Contact webpage.
Send suggestions regarding BRRTS to Danielle Wincentsen.
BRRTS Disclaimers
BRRTS is a resource to access information related to environmental investigations, contamination, cleanup and redevelopment. BRRTS only includes publicly available information that has been received by the DNR.
The information in BRRTS comes from various sources. As a result, there may be omissions and errors in the data and delays as information is updated and new information is added.
Information in the database is subject to change. For example, changes in ownership may occur over time, but the original responsible party may still be listed in the database. If you see data quality or completeness issues, please inform one of our RR Program Specialists.
BRRTS includes information about some locations where an environmental investigation found no contamination or contamination with little or no impact to human health and the environment. These entries may be found under three different activity types: Abandoned Containers (AC), No Action Required by RR Program (NAR) and some activities under General Property (GP).
The PLSS locations in the database may not match information in the reports; the DNR may update PLSS locations that appear incorrect.
To request a review of additional information within DNR records, contact the DNR staff person listed near the bottom of the Activity Details page.