On December 18, 2007, then-Governor Ed Rendell signed into law the Pennsylvania Uniform Environmental Covenants Act (UECA), which became effective on February 18, 2008. In addition, regulations implementing UECA were promulgated on November 20, 2010. Pursuant to UECA and its implementing regulations, all environmental cleanups conducted after February 18, 2008, that rely on the use of activity and use limitations (AULs) to meet a remediation standard under Pennsylvania’s Land Recycling and Environmental Remediation Standards Act (commonly referred to as Act 2) or Pennsylvania’s Storage Tank and Spill Prevention Act (Tank Act) must be recorded in the form of an environmental covenant that complies with the requirements of UECA.
Examples of AULs that are commonly used in connection with environmental cleanups include deed restrictions requiring the maintenance of a cap at a site to prevent exposure to residual contamination present in soils, or prohibitions on the use of contaminated groundwater. UECA also created a requirement that certain existing AULs be converted to a UECA-compliant environmental covenant by February 18, 2013 a deadline that is quickly approaching.
