Enviro-Letter #1: Prelisting Checklist – The Database
Have questions about an environmental issue? Please feel free to contact Ray about any question or concern you have on your property or a listing. Remember, I only do the Phase I ESA or Real Estate Transaction screens.
I do not do Phase II type testing or Phase III remediation action requirements, so I have nothing to gain to recommend testing or other costly cleanups that may actually be unnecessary. Give me a call so we can discuss potential savings.
Quiz
How long is it generally recognized that soil that has been previously used for cultivated crops be considered safe for public use such as homes, apartments etc? (Answer below)
Let’s say there was a superfund site in the 1980s, and the EPA said there was also an “area of impact” to the surrounding neighborhood. This “area of impact” shows up on the database and through the years, several environmental inspections have noted the troubled area, even to the point of soil testing parcels adjoining your subject tract. Yet, not one parcel tested “positive” as to any issue. Now you want to sell your parcel and you may ask ” Will my neighbors’ sampling investigations remove the issue of the “area of impact” as to my parcel”? The answer is no, but it will give you some degree of comfort that if your tract is tested, there should be no measurable impact. Each tract owner (and successor owners) need to keep all the environmental inspections, soil sampling lab reports etc. because it, and all the neighborhood parcels will always be subject to scrutiny on that issue. In other words, Phase I ESA reports and subsequent testing do not erase past issues (good or bad) as to the database (also known as the environmental records research).
Whether or not you know the environmental history of your tract and the area, it is deemed wise for the seller to pick the environmental professional (EP) for the environmental inspection. The buyer’s lender, usually a bank, may suggest several EPs to choose from, and since the buyer is usually paying the tab, what can be the harm? While the “age” of an issue surely will lessen the chance of impact of most issues, remember, many environmental firms err on the side of extreme caution and will suggest soil sampling or other tests ” just to be sure”. However, the buyer will often use his own EP preference to discover some aged or minor negatives in the report to hopefully renegotiate the price, never intending to spend much money, if any, on testing. If this happens, stay firm on the price and make the buyer pay for testing. Should any sampling test prove positive (and above the MCLs) the seller should select the remediation options.
Phase I ESA Cost
The cost of a Phase I ESA is relatively cheap environmental insurance, but testing and remediation can be very expensive, and therefore the seller should always have a say who will do the environmental inspection. And the best way to assure that is to have a report prepared by your EP ready to provide potential buyers.
“Not all chemicals are bad. Without chemicals such as hydrogen & oxygen, for example, there would be no way to make water, a vital ingredient in beer”
– Dave Barry
Quiz Answer
10 years. Most regulated pesticides used for most farm crops have naturally broken down thru bio-remediation. However, if possible, always check with the last owner/operator of the farm operations about chemical usage. If chemicals have been used on the soil for less than 10 years, testing may be in order.
ESA Terms to Know:
MCLs
Maximum Contaminant Levels and
TPH
Total Petroleum Hydrocarbons, a term used to describe a large family of several hundred chemical compounds that originally come from crude oil. Because there are so many different chemicals in crude oil and other petroleum products, it is not practical to measure each one separately. A sampling for the TPH level is needed when we suspect an oil spill or soil contamination due to fuel leakage, such as a petroleum underground storage tank (PUST).