Uniform Environmental Covenants Act - Purpose and Scope

Purpose and Scope

When contaminated properties and former industrial sites are remediated under the supervision of a governmental agency, there are occasionally issues requiring a long-term Land Use Control (LUC) or Activity Use Limitation (AUL) which regulatory officials seek to have recorded on the property title or deed prior to clearing it for reuse. These LUCs or AULs may list prohibitions on future uses (i.e. no residential housing or child care facilities), requirements for ongoing monitoring and remediation (i.e. monitoring and vapor extraction wells) or note protective structures and engineered controls.

According to the NCCUSL, UECA does not specify what the controls on a particular property should be, what cleanup level is appropriate, or whether a responsible party should be released from cleanup liability. The purpose of UECA is rather to ensure that future LUCs which have been created for a particular site are not invalidated by conflicts or misunderstandings with other local, state or federal regulations. UECA seeks to make sure environmental covenants are preserved and enforceable over a very long term against successive owners by applying traditional real estate law. Part of the philosophy is that if all parties to the covenant are confident that site-appropriate activity and use limitations in the covenant will be enforced, it is more likely that environmental regulators and the owners of contaminated real property will allow those properties to be developed, rather than continue to stand as abandoned and dangerous areas. It is hoped that redevelopment of the property, particularly in America’s urban centers, will help revitalize those cities and serve the economic and social interests of their residents.