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Delaware

Long-Term Stewardship (LTS)

Agency Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control

Long-term stewardship (LTS), as the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control (DNREC) defines it, is the maintenance and monitoring of the remedial measures taken at a site to maintain the desired level of protection of human health and the environment over an extended period of time. DNREC says it is required under subsection 12.7.5 of Delaware's Regulations Governing Hazardous Substance Cleanup (7 DE Admin. Code 1375), and generally has two parts: compliance with institutional controls and operation and maintenance of engineering controls, and long-term monitoring of the remedial actions at the site.

In a Phase I ESA

ASTM E1527-21 lists state institutional and engineering control registries among its standard sources; the general reading is on the State/Tribal Institutional and Engineering Control Registries page. The pages read name no Delaware registry of controls, so this handbook pairs no Delaware list with that type. Four Delaware details shape the search.

  • A recognized control is in a covenant. DNREC describes institutional controls as non-engineered instruments, such as administrative and legal controls, that help minimize the potential for human exposure to contamination or protect the integrity of the remedy. It says its Remediation Section recognizes institutional controls that have been recorded in an environmental covenant. DNREC's remediation guidance page links its environmental covenant form and a generic Contaminated Material Management Plan. Ask whether the site's file shows an environmental covenant.
  • Corrective action sites have controls too. DNREC's hazardous waste corrective action page names environmental covenants restricting land use, contaminated materials management plans for future earth-disturbing activities, and well drilling restrictions as controls established after a remedy is complete. See Hazardous Waste Corrective Action.
  • Groundwater management zones are mapped. DNREC's remediation guidance page links Groundwater Management Zones (GMZs) to its long-term stewardship page, and the DNREC Well Viewer includes groundwater management zones among its datasets. The pages read do not describe what a zone restricts.
  • Some closures carry conditions. DNREC's cleanup standards page lists no further action if specific conditions are met as one outcome of an initial assessment, and DNREC publishes Conditional "No Further Action" Guidance (December 2021). See HSCA State Lead and Enforcement Programs.

DNREC's Remediation Section has published guidance for long-term stewardship plans for sites remediated under the Hazardous Substance Cleanup Act; its guidance list dates it October 2025. DNREC says the guidance gives the criteria it will use in follow-up inspections and lists some of the information required in long-term stewardship reports. Sites also need periodic review and inspection: the owner or operator's own inspections, which DNREC says should typically include a physical inspection, and DNREC's review, which typically consists of a file review and may include a physical inspection of the property.

Where to look a site up

Getting the file

The long-term stewardship page does not give a records route of its own. DNREC's FOIA page says the Delaware Freedom of Information Act ensures public access to public records held by DNREC; the route is on the DNREC FOIA Requests page. The pages read do not say where an environmental covenant is recorded.

Sources

Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control pages, read October 13, 2026:

Maintained by Barrow. General reference only, not legal or professional advice. Barrow is not affiliated with any government agency, and neither Barrow nor the information as presented here is endorsed by any state or government agency. See how Barrow drafts the report