Spillist

Spillist is an informal noun used to describe either a person who compiles a list of spills or a document that collects spill-related incidents. In practice, a spillist may be a researcher, journalist, safety officer, or regulator who curates a centralized resource documenting environmental releases, such as oil spills, chemical discharges, or other hazardous spills, into a single dataset or log.

The term is not standardized and appears mainly in niche contexts. As a role, a spillist may be responsible for gathering incident reports, verifying details such as date, location, substance, approximate volume, cause, and response actions. As a document, a spillist file or database functions as a reference for monitoring trends, supporting risk assessments, and informing policy or remediation efforts. Because usage varies by domain, the exact scope of what counts as a spill and how it is recorded can differ between industries and organizations.

Related terms include spill list, spill log, incident register, and environmental incident database. These terms describe similar concepts—curated records of spills or releases—but are typically more formal or widely adopted in regulatory or professional contexts. While spillist usage is found in some environmental journalism and advocacy settings, it remains a low-frequency and informal term within formal documentation standards.

See also: oil spill, chemical spill, environmental incident database, spill log, incident report.