What You Must Know to Complete a Phase I ESA in 2022

A Phase I Environmental Site Assessment is to do determine if a property is contaminate in a way that affects the environment and poses a risk to it. During a real estate transaction, such as the purchase, sale, refinancing, or lease of land, a Phase I ESA is need as part of the due diligence process.

Usually, a lender will need a Phase I ESA to be do. However, public agencies sometimes ask for Phase I before a redevelopment project.

What Does a Phase I ESA Involve, and How Long Does it Take to Set Up?

A Phase I ESA records the history of a property by looking at both new and old sources. First, an Environmental Professional (EP) will gather information from different places, like agency records, government databases, historical topographic maps, historical aerial photographs, fire insurance maps, city directory listings, and interviews. The EP will also do a site survey to determine how the subject property and properties around it are doing. Then, the EP makes a report summarizing the information gathered during the process, including what they found about the property’s environmental health.

Phase I ESAs are usually finish in 4 weeks, and the ASTM standard says they are suitable for 180 days.

How Did the ASTM Standard for Phase I ESAs Change?

In November 2021, the American Society for Testing and Materials changed the ASTM Standard (E1527-21) for Phase I ESAs. As a result of years of deliberation by the ASTM Technical Committee, a shift in policy was implement. Some significant changes to the standard are:

• More focus on historical research, including properties next to each other: We need a more thorough look at how releases from neighbouring properties could affect the property in question. In particular, the require coverage of historical information references, such as city directory listings and fire insurance maps, has been expand to include better-neighbouring properties and what they are use for.

• Improved research on environmental liens: This improved ecological lien search requires looking through deeds from 1980 to find liens and activity use restrictions. As a result, the cost of making a Phase I Environmental Site Assessment has grown significantly. Environmental lien research is need to get liability protections from the CERCLA. However, it is still the duty of the person who uses the report, not the person who makes it.

• Rewrote the section about polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB): In the changes, PCB-containing or possibly PCB-containing materials that are part of a building or structure will not be test.

• Recognized Environmental Conditions can be more easily located with a site plan and photographs of the site’s most important features (RECs): The end of a Phase I ESA is figuring out if there are RECs or not. Including site figures and photos will help the EP determine where RECs or other areas of concern on the subject property are and tell others about them.

• Clarification of the truth of the report: Reports will still be valid for 180 days. But the new standard says that the date that records or individual parts were obtain must be write in the report.

• Getting rid of old databases for regulations: Outdated databases have been take down, so there is no longer a need to look through unnecessary database listings. This makes it easier to review and prepare reports.

Conclusion

The Phase I Environmental Site Assessment should be perform to reduce the risk of environmental lawsuits. Your report will either conclude with “No Further Action” or move you onto Phase II, a more in-depth procedure.