The Department regulates the clean-up of impacted sites. As part of the process, the Impacted Sites Management Section conducts searches of Department files for property owners and purchasers and their environmental consultants, lawyers, and realtors (often for a Phase I Environmental Site Assessment). This is often conducted as part of a property transfer. Requests for searches for environmental information on a property are to be completed using the following form, and sent to envsearch@gov.nl.ca.
Requests should also be made to Service NL, as they have separate files that cannot be accessed by the Department. Please contact Service NL at (709) 729-2550 for more information.
As of May 1, 2015, there are fees associated with the environmental information searches for properties.
Table 1: Property Environmental Search Fee Structure
| Property Land Use | Residential | Commercial | Industrial |
| Fee | $50.00 + HST | $75.00 + HST | $100.00 + HST |
Notes:
- Definitions of each land use as per Atlantic Risk-Based Corrective Action (RBCA) User Guidance (Version 4), July 2021.
- Agricultural land use, when encountered, is to follow commercial fee structure.
- Undeveloped land is to follow residential fee structure.
- Only one property per request.
- Fee is non-refundable, and is charged whether or not information is found during the search.
Payment can be made to the Department (by cheque) or through the Central Cashier’s Office by calling (709) 729-3042. Please quote account name MPA-Impacted Sites. Please make cheques payable to NL Exchequer.
The Central Cashier’s Office accepts payment in person by cash, debit, Mastercard or VISA. Payment can also be made to the Central Cashier’s Office by telephone (up to $150), or by mail (money order or cheque). Please ensure a receipt is obtained for proof of payment to the Department.
For payment to the Department, please mail cheque to:
Attn: Property Environmental Search Coordinator
Pollution Prevention Division
Department of Environment and Climate Change
4th Floor West Block, Confederation Building
PO Box 8700 St. John’s, NL A1B 4J6
Service Standard
Following receipt of a complete request containing sufficient information to describe property boundaries, the department will respond to the client with documentation of known property environmental information within 20 business days.
In the circumstances a request is assessed to be unusually complex, the department will contact the client within five business days following the receipt of a complete request and advise the client of an updated timeline for a response.