Standardizing Environmental Assessments: A Practical Perspective

The liability provisions of the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) have added a new twist to the concept of “buyer beware” in commercial real estate transactions. The Phase I Environmental Assessment was developed partly to provide a defense against that liability. Recent attempts to improve that defense by standardizing the approach to Phase I assessments may, in some cases, be counter-productive. This standardization has occurred at a time when the assessment market has created a surfeit of assessors, often with little practical training or experience. Some of these assessors have used the standards to develop a formulaic approach to assessments, despite the fact that many sites warrant different approaches due to differences in site characteristics and data quality. Every research step of the Phase I process—environmental and historical records review, site reconnaissance, and interviews—has potential problems that defy standardization. These problems must be properly understood to ensure the adequacy of a site assessment.