Uniform Environmental Covenants Act
Uniform Environmental Covenants Fact Sheet
Long-Term Stewardship is generally accepted as the establishment and maintenance of physical and non-physical controls that are necessary to maintain the effectiveness of an approved remedy at cleanup sites where remaining regulated substances do not allow for the unrestricted use of the property. It also includes any lifetime responsibilities (e.g., sampling, operation and maintenance, etc.) that ensure the effectiveness of the remedy after completion of the response action.
These responsibilities may be established within an Activity and Use Limitation (AUL) and may include engineering controls or institutional controls. Those documents may be in the form of an Environmental Covenant, Administrative Order, Consent Order and Agreement, Deed Restriction, Post-Remediation Care Plan or other AUL document.
On Dec. 18, 2007, Act 68, the
Uniform Environmental Covenants Act (UECA) (PDF), was signed into law. Act 68 provides a standardized process for creating, documenting and assuring the enforceability of activity and use limitations on contaminated sites. Under UECA an environmental covenant will be required whenever an engineering or institutional control is used to demonstrate the attainment of an Act 2 remediation standard for any cleanup conducted under an applicable Pennsylvania environmental law.
DEP is obligated under UECA to a registry for the public display of covenants received. To meet that requirement, DEP has developed the Pennsylvania Activity and Use Limitations (PA AUL) Registry.
The PA AUL Registry is a user friendly map-based website that allows user to identify properties within the commonwealth where any type of Activity and Use Limitation (AUL) has been imposed and of which DEP has been informed. AULs are restrictions or obligations with respect to real property. The term includes engineering controls and institutional controls.
Click here to proceed to the
Pennsylvania Activity and Use Limitations Registry
If you would like to download information from the PA AUL Registry, please click on the
"Report Viewer: Pennsylvania Activity and Use Limitations (PA AUL) Registry" | Report Viewer Instructions
To assist with the implementation of UECA, DEP has developed the following documents for the public's use.
Engineering and Institutional Controls
Engineering controls include various forms of caps, building foundations, liners, and treatment methods to create pathway elimination for regulated substances to enter environmental media or effect human health.
Institutional controls include administrative measures, such as groundwater use restrictions, construction restrictions, property use restrictions, and post remediation care requirements intended to prevent exposure to contaminants remaining on site. Deed restrictions are generally required as part of the institutional controls.
The following excel spreadsheets are dated May 2008. They represent sites with either an engineering control (EC) or institutional control (IC) approved by the Land Recycling Program prior to the effective date of UECA. Any site requiring an EC or IC to maintain the approved remedy after the February 2008 date would be listed in the Pennsylvania Activity and Use Limitations Registry.
The sites listed within these excel files represent historic data for EC/IC tracking. These sites will eventually be incorporated into the PA Activity and Use Limitations Registry. Until that time, both resources are available. However, the data remains accurate and does not require update.
Questions regarding Pennsylvania's Uniform Environmental Covenant Act and its implementation may be sent to Troy Conrad at
tconrad@pa.gov.