Environmental Site Assessments

Environmental disasters such as Love Canal
were largely blamed on industrial waste disposal
practices and prompted lawmakers to pass
environmental laws to protect the public and
compel landowners to pay for the cleanup of their
property. The resulting legislation is contained in
The Comprehensive Environmental Response,
Compensation and Liability Act of 1980 (CERCLA)
and the Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization
Act of 1986 (SARA). Today, the only way to limit
liability for a contaminated site is to prove the
“innocent landowner defense” provided for under
SARA. In order to establish this defense, SARA
states that “the defendant must have undertaken
at the time of acquisition an all appropriate
inquiry into the previous ownership and uses
of the property consistent with good commercial
or customary practice in an effort to minimize liability. Virtually all lending institutions and prudent real estate
investors require an Environmental Site Assessment (ESA) prior to finalizing a commercial real estate purchase.

Phase I Environmental Site Assessment

The Phase I ESA is a visual commercial property condition assessment designed as a cost effective overview of a site which should identify potential environmental hazards and/or past practices that may prove to be a potential liability. A typical Phase I ESA involves no collection of samples or testing and is limited to information available through public sources, interview or first hand observation.

Phase II Environmental Site Assessment

A Phase II essentially proves or disproves allegations arrived at during the Phase I. Simply put, a Phase I raises red flags and a Phase II reviews those red flags. A Phase II typically involves collection of soil and/or groundwater samples for analytical testing in accordance with EPA regulations. Each Phase II is developed based upon the specific site conditions and includes only applicable tests and investigations. Phase II assessment qualitatively confirms environmental impairments and liabilities resulting from the Phase I and yields basic projections of remediation costs.