Service List
- Environmental Assessments
- Asbestos Services
- Phase I Environmental Assessment
- Phase II Soil and Groundwater Investigations
- Site Remediation, Mitigation, Investigations, and NFR letters
- Lead-based Paint Inspections, Risk Assessments, Industrial Hygiene, Litigation Support, and Safety
- Underground Storage Tank Management, Removal and Closure
- Phase I Update Certification
- Phase III Environmental Assessment
- Third Party Peer Review
- Transaction Screen Process (ASTM E 1528)
- UST/LUST Management
Environmental Assessments
Environmental assessments for property transfers focus on assessing the potential for environmental liability based on historical and current uses of the property and nearby properties. Because significant business and risk management decisions are made based on the data generated, they require extreme care and diligence in their execution.
Below is our “Overview of the Environmental Site Assessment (ESA) process”. This provides a basic introduction to the design and logic behind our due diligence approach.
It is ESI’s practice to staff our projects with qualified professionals and to ensure that the work associated with the project undergoes a thorough technical review. Our associates are skilled veterans and recognized experts in their field, with most having over ten years of experience.
ESI’s staff has extensive experience in developing and implementing client-specific scopes of work and reporting formats. Whether a client has developed their own proprietary scope of work or must meet the requirements of a capital partner or the secondary market, ESI is familiar with a wide variety of scope variations that exist in the marketplace today. ESI has experience with most major lending institution and investment banking criteria, including ASTM E-1527, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and Standard & Poors.
Overview of the Environmental Site Assessment (ESA) process
The phased approach for the evaluation of environmental conditions is designed to assess, evaluate, and quantify “recognized environmental conditions”. The term “recognized environmental condition” is defined in ASTM E 1527 and generally refers to a past release, existing release, or threat of a release of any hazardous substance or petroleum product on a property; contaminating the ground, groundwater, or surface water.
This approach provides a framework of information upon which each succeeding phase builds upon. The process typically proceeds by, determining suspect conditions (Phase I), confirming those conditions (Phase II), establishing limit and extent of the conditions (Phase III), and finally developing clean up or remediation programs (Phase IV).
Accordingly, it is in the best interest of everyone to plan this process one-phase-at-a-time. Meaning, a Phase I assessment should be performed, and its results evaluated. Then, if the Phase I indicates further information is required, a Phase II assessment should be developed and designed to confirm the information found in the Phase I.
Assessment phases should not be purchased as a package. First, a Phase II may not be necessary. More importantly, the scope of the Phase II assessment cannot be determined without the Phase I assessment data. This follows for the later Phases also.