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How to Request Public Records from Dept. of Natural Resources and Parks
Thank you for your interest in public records held by King County Department of Natural Resources and Parks (DNRP).
To request Phase 1 Environmental Site Assessment records, please visit our records request page.
For all other records from DNRP, please visit the Support Home Page (govqa.us) and choose Executive Branch> General Records.
You will need to set up an account to make records requests. For help with the request site, please email prarequests@kingcounty.gov or call 206-263-2250.
For questions or issues with a DNRP request, contact one of our Division's Public Records Officers:
- Director's Office, Department of Natural Resources and Parks – Sara Fitzgibbons – 206-263-1830
- Parks and Recreation Division – Adonis Newkirk – 206-263-2457
- Solid Waste Division – Jennifer Guy – 206-263-9249
- Wastewater Treatment Division – Don Jewett – 206-477-5428
- Water & Land Resources Division – Kerry Thrasher – 206-477-4671
If you have difficulty using the records request site, please send your request to one of the Public Records Officers.
Questions and answers
A public record is any document that has information about the government's activities. These documents can come in many different forms, such as papers, emails, videos, and more. If you want to see one of these records, you will need to make a request. You don't need to know every detail about the document, just as much as you can give us will help us find it faster. If you ask for "all the records," it may take a long time to find everything. So it's better to be specific. If you need help figuring out how to make your request, our staff is here to help you.
When you make a request for a public record, we won't start counting the days until the next business day. Weekends and holidays don't count either. Within five business days, we'll do one of three things:
- We'll give you the record(s) you asked for, or part of it if there's a lot to go through.
- We'll let you know we got your request and tell you how long it will take to get the record(s) you asked for.
- We'll tell you in writing that we can't give you the record(s) and explain why we can't. Sometimes we can give you part of what you asked for and not the rest.
Washington State law says that if you ask for a public record, we have to respond within five business days. That means we have to do one of five things within those five days (not counting holidays):
- Let you know we got your request and give you an idea of how long it will take to give you the record(s) you asked for.
- Give you the record(s) you asked for.
- Give you a web address where you can find the record(s) online.
- Ask you for more information so we can understand what you're asking for.
- Tell you in writing that we can't give you the record(s) you asked for and explain why.
No. When you ask the Department of Natural Resources and Parks (DNRP) for a public record, your request itself becomes a public record of DNRP. That means other people can ask for a copy of your request, and we'll give it to them if they ask.
Before we can give you a public record, we have to look at it and make sure we're allowed to give it to you. There are some records that we're not allowed to give you, and we call these records "exempt." We figure out if a record is exempt by checking a list of exemptions in the law. But there are also other laws that might make a record exempt. If we can't give you a record because it's exempt, we have to tell you which law says we can't give it to you and explain why.