West Virginia Code 22-18-21 – Disclosures required in deeds and leases
(a) The grantor in any deed or other instrument of conveyance or any lessor in any lease or other instrument whereby any real property is let for a period of time shall disclose in such deed, lease or other instrument the fact that such property or the subsurface of such property, (whether or not the grantor or lessor is at the time of such conveyance or lease the owner of such subsurface) was used for the storage, treatment or disposal of hazardous waste. The provisions of this subsection only apply to those grantors or lessors who owned or had an interest in the real property when the same or the subsurface thereof was used for the purpose of storage, treatment or disposal of hazardous waste or who have actual knowledge that such real property or the subsurface thereof was used for such purpose or purposes at any time prior thereto.
Terms Used In West Virginia Code 22-18-21
- Deed: The legal instrument used to transfer title in real property from one person to another.
- Director: means the director of the Division of Environmental Protection or such other person to whom the director has delegated authority or duties pursuant to sections six or eight, article one of this chapter. See West Virginia Code 22-18-3
- Disposal: means the discharge, deposit, injection, dumping, spilling, leaking or placing of any hazardous waste into or on any land or water so that such hazardous waste or any constituent thereof may enter the environment or be emitted into the air, or discharged into any waters, including groundwaters. See West Virginia Code 22-18-3
- Grantor: The person who establishes a trust and places property into it.
- Hazardous waste: means a waste or combination of wastes, which because of its quantity, concentration or physical, chemical or infectious characteristics, may: (A) Cause, or significantly contribute to, an increase in mortality or an increase in serious irreversible, or incapacitating reversible, illness. See West Virginia Code 22-18-3
- in writing: includes any representation of words, letters, or figures, whether by printing, engraving, writing, or otherwise. See West Virginia Code 2-2-10
- Lease: A contract transferring the use of property or occupancy of land, space, structures, or equipment in consideration of a payment (e.g., rent). Source: OCC
- 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
- Storage: means the containment of hazardous waste, either on a temporary basis or for a period of years, in such a manner as not to constitute disposal of such hazardous waste. See West Virginia Code 22-18-3
- Treatment: means any method, technique or process, including neutralization, designed to change the physical, chemical or biological character or composition of any hazardous waste so as to neutralize such waste or so as to render such waste nonhazardous, safer for transport, amenable to recovery, amenable to storage or reduced in volume. See West Virginia Code 22-18-3
- Waste: means any garbage, refuse, sludge from a waste treatment plant, water supply treatment plant or air pollution control facility and other discarded material including solid, liquid, semisolid or contained gaseous material resulting from industrial, commercial, mining and agricultural operations and from community activities, but does not include solid or dissolved material in domestic sewage, or solid or dissolved materials in irrigation return flows or industrial discharges which are point sources subject to permits under Section 402 of the federal Water Pollution Control Act, as amended, or source, special nuclear or by-product material as defined by the federal Atomic Energy Act of 1954, as amended. See West Virginia Code 22-18-3
(b) Any grantee of real estate or of any substrata underlying said real estate or any lessee for a term who intends to use the real estate conveyed or let or any substrata underlying the same for the purpose of storing, treating or disposing of hazardous waste shall disclose in writing at the time of such conveyance or lease or within thirty days prior thereto such fact to the grantor or lessor of such real estate or substrata. Such disclosure shall describe the proposed location upon said property of the site to be used for the storage, treatment or disposal of hazardous waste, the identity of such waste, the proposed method of storage, treatment or disposal to be used with respect to such waste and any and all other information required by rules of the director.