Utah
Environmental Covenants
The Utah Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) uses environmental covenants under Utah's Uniform Environmental Covenants Act (Utah Code 57-25-101 and following). Its Division of Environmental Response and Remediation (DERR) says a cleanup of contaminated property may include a covenant, which may also go by the name of an institutional control, a land use control or another term. DERR's tank program publishes a covenant template for giving notice that contamination is left at a site.
In a Phase I ESA
This handbook reads DEQ's lists and pages of sites with covenants as the Utah form of the state institutional and engineering control registries that ASTM E1527-21 lists as a standard source. Four DEQ program pages each link their own list or page of sites, and the pages read name no single registry, so the pairing is the handbook's reading. The general reading of a control listing is on the State/Tribal Institutional and Engineering Control Registries page.
What DEQ links, by program
| Program | Division | What DEQ links |
|---|---|---|
| Petroleum storage tanks | DERR | Environmental Covenants or Institutional Controls, under a heading that calls it a list of sites in Utah |
| Superfund and federal facilities | DERR | A page labelled Sites with an Environmental Covenant |
| Voluntary Cleanup Program | DERR | A document labelled Sites with an Environmental Covenant, under the page's completions heading |
| Hazardous Waste Cleanup Program | Waste Management and Radiation Control (DWMRC) | A list that DWMRC says is of sites under long-term administrative or engineering controls |
This handbook did not open them. Only DWMRC's label names engineering controls; the pages read do not say whether the other three record them. Check all four, since each comes from a different program.
How a covenant comes about
- At a DWMRC closure. When a site in DWMRC's Environmental Cleanup Program closes as Corrective Action Complete With Controls, DWMRC requires a Site Management Plan and an Environmental Covenant. See Hazardous Waste Cleanup Program (HWCP).
- With a comfort letter. A DWMRC comfort letter applicant must commit to follow any institutional controls on the property, such as site management plans or environmental covenants, and DWMRC says that in some cases it may require a covenant before giving a comfort letter to someone who already owns the property.
- At a tank or voluntary cleanup. DERR's tank pages publish a PST environmental covenant template and list an RA template without a link, and its voluntary cleanup page links the act. See Leaking Petroleum Storage Tanks (LPST) Program and Voluntary Cleanup Program (VCP).
The comfort letter section of DWMRC's Hazardous Waste Cleanup Program page counts the search for recorded liens, giving site management plans and environmental covenants as examples, among the inquiries behind bona fide prospective purchaser status.
Where to look a site up
- The four links in the table above.
- DERR's main line is (801) 536-4100; DWMRC's is (801) 536-0200.
Getting the file
DERR takes records requests on DEQ's GRAMA request form at errgrama@utah.gov or (801) 536-4157. DWMRC takes them at wmrcgrama@utah.gov or (801) 536-0200, and asks for details such as the facility name, since it does not usually file records by address. The routes are on the GRAMA requests page.
Sources
Utah Department of Environmental Quality pages, read October 13, 2026:
- Environmental Covenants, last modified April 15, 2026.
- Petroleum Contamination Notification, last modified May 18, 2026.
- Superfund Program and Federal Facilities, last modified April 15, 2026.
- Voluntary Cleanup Program, last modified April 22, 2026.
- Hazardous Waste Cleanup Program, last modified April 16, 2026.
- About DERR, last modified May 12, 2026.
- Division of Waste Management and Radiation Control, last modified May 19, 2026.
- Environmental Quality Records Request (GRAMA), last modified April 21, 2026.