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.
View 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.
- Model Environmental Covenant (Found under Other Forms)
- Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) on UECA (Revised 9-2021) (PDF)
Engineering and Institutional Controls
Engineering controls include various remedial actions in the forms of caps, building foundations, liners, and treatment methods to contain or control the migration of regulated substances within environmental media that could adversely impact human health.
Institutional controls include measures, such as groundwater use restrictions, construction restrictions, property use restrictions, and post remediation care requirements intended to prevent interference with remedial action or to prevent exposure to contaminants remaining on site.
Engineering and Institutional Controls are Activity and Use Limitations (AULs) that restrict the use of a property or a portion of a property. Prior to the enactment of UECA, AULs would be recorded in the form of deed restrictions or deed notices. All sites with AULs as deed restrictions or notices that were approved by the Land Recycling program prior to UECA have been incorporated into the PA Activity and Use Limitations Registry
Questions regarding Pennsylvania's Uniform Environmental Covenant Act and its implementation may be sent to ra-eplandrecycling@pa.gov.