Pennsylvania
Activity and Use Limitations (PA AUL) Registry
Pennsylvania Activity and Use Limitations (PA AUL) Registry
Pennsylvania's Uniform Environmental Covenants Act (UECA), Act 68, was signed on December 18, 2007. It sets a standardized process for creating, documenting and assuring the enforceability of activity and use limitations on contaminated sites, and it obliges the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) to keep a registry for public display of the covenants it receives. DEP developed the Pennsylvania Activity and Use Limitations (PA AUL) Registry to meet that duty.
In a Phase I ESA
The registry is the Pennsylvania form of the state institutional control and engineering control registries that ASTM E1527-21 lists as a standard source. The general reading of a control listing is on the State/Tribal Institutional and Engineering Control Registries page.
- It holds both kinds of control. DEP defines activity and use limitations (AULs) as restrictions or obligations with respect to real property, and says the term includes engineering controls and institutional controls. Its examples of engineering controls are caps, building foundations, liners and treatment methods. Its examples of institutional controls are groundwater use restrictions, construction restrictions, property use restrictions and post remediation care requirements.
- It holds more than covenants. DEP says the registry includes properties with environmental covenants, deed restrictions, post remediation care plans or any other AUL document. An AUL can also take the form of an administrative order or a consent order and agreement.
- It shows what DEP has been told. DEP describes the registry as identifying properties where an AUL has been imposed and of which DEP has been informed. Do not treat an empty search as proof that no restriction exists. Compare it with the deed and with the cleanup file.
- Older restrictions were brought in. Before UECA, AULs were recorded as deed restrictions or deed notices. DEP says all sites with such AULs that the Land Recycling Program approved before UECA have been incorporated into the registry.
- A control under Act 2 requires a covenant. Under UECA, an environmental covenant is required whenever an engineering or institutional control is used to demonstrate attainment of an Act 2 remediation standard, for any cleanup conducted under an applicable Pennsylvania environmental law. So a completed cleanup that relied on a cap or a use restriction is a reason to look here. See Act 2 remediation standards.
What the record shows
Once a property is found, DEP says, the AUL documents associated with it can be viewed. Read the document itself. DEP describes long-term stewardship as including lifetime responsibilities such as sampling and operation and maintenance, and says those responsibilities may be established within an AUL.
At a One Cleanup Program site, DEP says there may be restrictions required by both EPA and DEP, and that some sites may need a separate covenant for EPA's signature. See the One Cleanup Program page.
DEP lists the regulations for the Act as Chapter 253, Administration of the Environmental Covenants Act.
Where to look a site up
- The Pennsylvania Activity and Use Limitations Registry is a map-based website. DEP says searches can be run on the map or by address, zip code, county or other criteria.
- DEP's Uniform Environmental Covenants Act page links a report viewer for downloading registry information, with instructions, and a set of frequently asked questions on UECA.
- Questions about UECA go to ra-eplandrecycling@pa.gov.
Getting the file
The registry gives the AUL document. The cleanup reports behind it are in the site's file. DEP recommends an Informal File Review, requested on an electronic form and scheduled with the regional office, before a request under the Right-to-Know Law. Both routes are on the Informal File Review and Right-to-Know requests page.
Sources
Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection pages, read October 1, 2026, no modified date shown: