UST Check → counties → Minnesota → Steele
Underground storage tanks & leak sites in Steele County, MN
Every figure below is from EPA UST Finder — the EPA-compiled national registry of state-reported underground storage tanks — county aggregates as published by EPA.
132registered tank facilities
75open tanks
311closed tanks
108leak incidents on record
5cleanups still open
5 leak cleanups in
Steele County are still open — the state has not closed the case.
An open cleanup near a property you're buying or lending on is a findable, checkable fact: it appears in a
per-address screen with distance and the registry record.
Open leak cleanups — most recently reported
| Site | City | Reported | Substance | EPA record |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Former Nielsen Gopher Stop | Ellendale | 2018-06-15 | — | MNLS0020709 |
| Caterpillar Forest Products | Owatonna | 2017-08-23 | — | MNLS0020621 |
| Kwik Trip #237 | Owatonna | 2015-03-16 | — | MNLS0019757 |
| Bill's Auto Repair | Owatonna | not reported | — | MNLS0014129 |
| Central Coop Oil Assn | Owatonna | not reported | — | MNLS0002667 |
What this means if you're buying or lending here
- "Closed" ≠ clean. A closed tank was taken out of service per the registry — many were closed without soil testing, especially before the late 1990s.
- The registry is incomplete by design. Tanks removed before 1986 and most residential heating-oil tanks were never registered. A county with 132 registered facilities has an unknown number of unregistered ones.
- Open cleanups are the headline. 5 cases in this county are still open; contamination may still be under investigation or remediation — distance from a specific parcel is what matters, and that's a per-address question.
Screen a specific property
This page covers the county. A purchase or loan decision needs the registry around one address: registered tanks at the parcel, every facility within 500 and 1,500 ft, leak cleanups with status and distance — each line cited to the official record.
Screen an address — $49 How it worksThis is a screen of EPA-registered tank and leak records, not an environmental site assessment. State registries are incomplete by design: tanks removed before 1986 and most residential heating-oil tanks were never registered, so a clean screen cannot prove the absence of a tank. "Closed" means a tank was taken out of service per the registry — it does not certify that no contamination remains.
source: EPA UST Finder EPA data vintage 2024-12-04 computed 2026-06-12