West Virginia Code 22-22B-11 – Enforcement of environmental covenant
(a) A civil action for injunctive or other equitable relief for violation of an environmental covenant may be maintained by:
Terms Used In West Virginia Code 22-22B-11
- 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
- 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
- Equitable: Pertaining to civil suits in "equity" rather than in "law." In English legal history, the courts of "law" could order the payment of damages and could afford no other remedy. See damages. A separate court of "equity" could order someone to do something or to cease to do something. See, e.g., injunction. In American jurisprudence, the federal courts have both legal and equitable power, but the distinction is still an important one. For example, a trial by jury is normally available in "law" cases but not in "equity" cases. Source: U.S. Courts
- Person: means an individual, corporation, business trust, estate, trust, partnership, limited liability company, association, joint venture, public corporation, government, governmental subdivision, agency or instrumentality or any other legal or commercial entity. 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
(1) A party to the covenant;
(2) The agency or, if it is not the agency, the Department of Environmental Protection;
(3) Any person to whom the covenant expressly grants power to enforce;
(4) A person whose interest in the real property or whose collateral or liability may be affected by the alleged violation of the covenant; or
(5) A municipality or other unit of local government in which the real property subject to the covenant is located.
(b) This article does not limit the regulatory authority of the agency or the Department of Environmental Protection under law other than this article with respect to an environmental response project.
(c) A person is not responsible for or subject to liability for environmental remediation solely because it has the right to enforce an environmental covenant.