Nevada Division of Environmental Protection, Bureau of Corrective Actions, Environmental Covenants

FAQ's: Environmental Covenant

Environmental Covenant Riverpark Units 11 & 12

Environmental Covenant Riverpark Units 13 &15

An environmental covenant is an instrument used to define the appropriate activities and/or uses on real property that has been subject to contamination. It is a recordable instrument that is attached to the deed and runs with the property. It is almost always used on a property that was subject to clean-up action by a regulatory authority, either the Nevada Division of Environmental Protection (NDEP) or the US Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA).

In 2005 environmental covenants were created with the passage of Senate Bill No. 263 by the Nevada Legislature. The covenants meet a need to protect both the responsible party and regulatory agencies. Responsible parties must invest significant resources for removing contamination and constructing and maintaining engineering controls to limit the potential exposure from remnant contamination. Regulatory agencies on the other hand, such as NDEP or the US EPA, are responsible for enforcing and overseeing clean-up actions to assure protections remain in-place and are effective through their design life.

One can learn more about Nevada's environmental covenants on this webpage. As of January 2012, this webpage contains links to allow individuals to locate properties throughout Nevada that have covenants attached to their property deeds.