Environmental Use Restrictions

An Environmental Use Restriction (EUR) is a restriction the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP) describes as meant to minimize the risk of human exposure to pollutants and hazards to the environment by preventing specific uses or activities at a property or a portion of a property. DEEP's page, last modified March 26, 2026, says there are two types, the Environmental Land Use Restriction (ELUR) and the Notice of Activity and Use Limitation (NAUL), and that both are recorded on the municipal land records.

In a Phase I ESA

This handbook reads EURs as the Connecticut form of the state institutional and engineering control records that ASTM E1527-21 lists as a standard source. The reading is ours: DEEP's pages do not use the words institutional control, engineering control or registry for them. The general reading of a controls registry is on the State/Tribal Institutional and Engineering Control Registries page. The pages read do not say whether DEEP keeps a separate record of engineering controls. Four Connecticut details help.

• The two types differ in what they create. DEEP says an ELUR is an easement granted to the Commissioner by the property owner and recorded on the municipal land records. A NAUL is a notice recorded on the municipal land records that does not create an easement on the parcel granted to the Commissioner. DEEP lists fees of $5,000 for a Commissioner approved ELUR, $5,000 for a Commissioner approved NAUL and $1,500 for a NAUL approved by a Licensed Environmental Professional (LEP).
• The map is not the record. DEEP's advisory notice says a search of the municipal land records should be conducted to confirm that an EUR is recorded and in force, and that DEEP does not guarantee its information is complete or free from erroneous entries. DEEP says the information is updated periodically and may not represent data currently available.
• Owners have inspection duties. DEEP says an annual inspection is to be done between April 1 and July 31 each year, with a report signed by the owner within 30 days. It says an LEP-conducted five-year comprehensive inspection is to be done between April 1 and September 30 beginning in 2025, and that for EURs recorded in 2020 and before, one should have been completed in 2025. Inspection reports are maintained by the parcel owner and provided to the Commissioner on request, so ask the owner for them.
• A transfer triggers a notice. DEEP's page says the transferee uses the EUR Notification of Transfer form to notify the commissioner within 30 days of the transfer of ownership of a parcel, or a portion of one, that is subject to an EUR.

DEEP also describes Emergency and Non-Emergency EUR Releases, which it says allow activities that the EUR prohibits, such as excavation and utility work.

Where to look a site up

• DEEP maintains a map of Environmental Use Restrictions recorded on the municipal land records and with Certificates of Title on file at DEEP.
• DEEP says EUR records are available for review in the DEEP Document Online Search Portal.
• DEEP's list of Contaminated or Potentially Contaminated Sites says Environmental Use Restriction sites are among its sources.
• The EUR Coordinator is at deep.eur@ct.gov.

Getting the file

The recorded instrument is on the municipal land records, which DEEP tells you to search. DEEP's records on an EUR are in the Document Online Search Portal. DEEP says ELURs and NAULs are uploaded into its REACT portal, so recent documents may be there as well. See the overview for the cut-off dates its pages give.

Sources

Department of Energy and Environmental Protection pages, read October 8, 2026:

• Environmental Use Restrictions, last modified March 26, 2026.
• Environmental Land Use Restrictions, last modified March 26, 2026.
• Notices of Activity and Use Limitation, last modified March 26, 2026.
• List of Contaminated or Potentially Contaminated Sites in Connecticut, last modified April 8, 2026.
• Voluntary Remediation Programs, last modified April 13, 2026.