The Impacted Sites Management Section (ISMS) of the Department of Environment, Conservation and Climate Change oversees the regulation and remediation of impacted sites. As part of these responsibilities the Section conducts searches of Departmental files on behalf of property owners, prospective purchasers and their environmental consultants, lawyers and or realtors. This is often in support of a Phase I Environmental Site Assessment or during property transactions.

Requests for environmental information related to a property must be submitted using the designated form below and emailed to envsearch@gov.nl.ca.

• Application for Property Environmental Search

The Department also recommends submitting a request to the Department of Government Services, as they maintain separate files that are not accessible to the Department of Environment, Conservation and Climate Change. For more information, please contact the Department of Government Services at (709) 729-2550.

Please note that fees for environmental information searches have been in effect since May 1, 2015.

Property Environmental Search Fee Structure

Property Land Use	Residential/Undeveloped	Commercial/Agricultural	Industrial
Fee	$50.00 + HST	$75.00 + HST	$100.00 + HST

 

1. Definitions of each land use as per Atlantic Risk-Based Corrective Action (RBCA) User Guidance (Version 4), July 2021 (updated July 2022).
2. Agricultural land use, when encountered, is to follow commercial fee structure.
3. Undeveloped land is to follow residential fee structure.
4. Only one property per request.
5. Fee is non-refundable and is charged whether or not information is found during the search.
6. The search will not be completed until proof of payment is received.

Payment can be made to the Department in several ways. When making payment please quote the account name ECC-Impacted Sites.

• By Phone using a credit card calling the Central Cashier’s Office at (709) 729‑3042.
• In Person at the Central Cashier’s Office, where cash, debit, credit, or a money order or cheque made payable to “NL Exchequer” are accepted.
• By Mail sending a money order or cheque payable to “NL Exchequer” to the following address:

Attn: Property Environmental Search Coordinator
Pollution Prevention Division
Department of Environment, Conservation and Climate Change
4^th Floor West Block, Confederation Building
PO Box 8700, St. John’s, NL   A1B 4J6

For more information, please contact the Central Cashier’s Office.

 

Service Standard

Upon receiving a complete request that includes sufficient information to describe the property boundaries, the Department will respond with documentation of any known environmental information for the property within 20 business days.

If a request is determined to be unusually complex, the Department will contact the client within five business days of receiving the complete request to advise them of an updated timeline for the response.