West Virginia Code 22-22B-4 – Contents of environmental covenant
(a) An environmental covenant must:
Terms Used In West Virginia Code 22-22B-4
- Activity and use limitations: means restrictions or obligations created under this article with respect to real property. See West Virginia Code 22-22B-2
- Agency: means the Department of Environmental Protection or any federal agency that determines or approves the environmental response project pursuant to which the environmental covenant is created. See West Virginia Code 22-22B-2
- Amendment: A proposal to alter the text of a pending bill or other measure by striking out some of it, by inserting new language, or both. Before an amendment becomes part of the measure, thelegislature must agree to it.
- Environmental covenant: means a servitude arising under an environmental response project that imposes activity and use limitations. See West Virginia Code 22-22B-2
- Environmental response project: means a plan or work performed for environmental remediation of real property and conducted:
(A) Under a federal or state program governing environmental remediation of real property, including article twenty-two of this chapter. See West Virginia Code 22-22B-2
- Fee simple: Absolute title to property with no limitations or restrictions regarding the person who may inherit it.
- Holder: means the grantee of an environmental covenant as specified in subsection (a), section three of this article. See West Virginia Code 22-22B-2
- Real property: Land, and all immovable fixtures erected on, growing on, or affixed to the land.
- real property: include lands, tenements and hereditaments, all rights thereto and interests therein, except chattel interests. See West Virginia Code 2-2-10
- Record: means information that is inscribed on a tangible medium or that is stored in an electronic or other medium and is retrievable in perceivable form. See West Virginia Code 22-22B-2
- State: means a state of the United States, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the United States Virgin Islands or any territory or insular possession subject to the jurisdiction of the United States. See West Virginia Code 22-22B-2
(1) State that the instrument is an environmental covenant executed pursuant to this article;
(2) Contain a legally sufficient description of the real property subject to the covenant;
(3) Describe the activity and use limitations on the real property;
(4) Identify every holder;
(5) Be signed and notarized by the agency, every holder, and unless waived by the agency every owner of the fee simple of the real property subject to the covenant; and
(6) Identify the name and location of any administrative record for the environmental response project reflected in the environmental covenant.
(b) In addition to the information required by subsection (a) of this section, an environmental covenant may contain other information, restrictions and requirements agreed to by the persons who signed it, including any:
(1) Requirements for notice following transfer of a specified interest in, or concerning proposed changes in use of, applications for building permits for, or proposals for any site work affecting the contamination on, the property subject to the covenant;
(2) Requirements for periodic reporting describing compliance with the covenant;
(3) Rights of access to the property granted in connection with implementation or enforcement of the covenant;
(4) A brief narrative description of the contamination and remedy, including the contaminants of concern, the pathways of exposure, limits on exposure and the location and extent of the contamination;
(5) Limitation on amendment or termination of the covenant in addition to those contained in sections nine and ten of this article; and
(6) Rights of the holder in addition to its right to enforce the covenant pursuant to section eleven of this article.
(c) In addition to other conditions for its approval of an environmental covenant, the agency may require those persons specified by the agency who have interests in the real property to sign the covenant.