Services
Environmental Site Assessments | Phase I ESAs
Phase 1 Environmental Site Assessments (ESAs) are required for most commercial property refinancing and property transactions. The following is a list of typical Environmental Site Assessment users:
- Property owners
- Real estate firms
- Developers
- Banks
- Lenders
- Title companies
- Corporate, industrial and institutional facility real estate managers
A Phase II is implemented to qualitatively confirm suspected environmental impairments generally resulting from conclusions and/or recommendations from the Phase I ESA.
What are the laws?
Federal, state and local laws make current and prior property owners or managers potentially liable for the entire cost of cleaning up a contaminated site. With new laws in effect in many locales, financial institutions, facilities managers and real estate managers are instituting procedures and guidelines to assess the status of a property with regard to environmental laws before a property transaction. With municipalities requiring an environmental assessment before the issuance of a construction permit, the site assessment process can save considerable money and prevent costly delays associated with agency-mandated cleanup operations.
What's Included?
The Phase I ESA intends to satisfy the due diligence requirements of a property transaction using ASTM or client-specific guidelines by identifying possible environmental impairments on a particular property.
At GeoLOGIC, we apply the latest investigative technologies in well-designed and practical site assessment programs. With over 20 years of experience, GeoLOGIC has a thorough understanding of applicable regulatory requirements to assess the degree of significance of subsurface impacts from unauthorized releases. GeoLOGIC distinguishes itself from its competitors by ensuring that all clients receive tailored, effective, and successful environmental solutions to their concerns.
Typical Phase I services include:
- A physical survey of the property and surrounding properties to assess general land use and occupants of the area;
- On-site visual inspection of the site to identify recognized environmental concerns;
- Review of readily assessable data regarding the local geology and hydrology;
- Assessment of current, past usage and practices of the property (Particular attention is given to assessing whether or not past or present hazardous material or waste handling practices have occurred at the site);
- As assessment of historic land use and development of the property through an interpretation of fire insurance maps, city directories, and/or aerial photographs of the site and interviews with persons knowledgeable of the site history;
- A review of owner/operator records;
- A review of local, state, and federal regulatory agency records maintained for the site; and
- A written report of all findings including recommendations and conclusions.