Phase I Site Assessments primarily assesses the likelihood of site contamination through visual observations, historical use reviews, and regulatory records, while Phase II assesses the extent of contamination present in the site.
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Difference between phase i and phase ii site assessments
1. Difference Between Phase I And Phase II
Environmental Site Assessments
Environmental site assessment phases, as we all know, are commonly used terms for a real
estate holding that classifies probable or existent environmental contamination liabilities.
Addressing both the underlying land as well as physical improvements to the property, both
phase I environmental assessment and phase II environmental assessment hold high
importance. Here, in this blog, we would like to highlight the prime differences between Phase I
And Phase II Environmental Site Assessments.
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Performing environmental site assessments is an essential part of due diligence as most of the
time, questions regarding legal responsibility related to environmental concerns are increasing.
The best part is that it helps to prevent damage to property transactions by providing both
buyers and vendors with information about potential environmental hazards.
The Phase I assessment works on framing complete details like documenting and checking
with the property owners and others to compile information. Phase II assessments go in-
depth, which includes even analyzing soil and water samples.
Phase I Environmental Assessment was referred by CERCLA for determining liabilities for
environmental contamination of real estate properties. This assessment can identify hazardous
substances and highlight issues to landowners and genuine prospective purchasers and exempt
2. them from liability. As per the Phase I ESA report, a Phase II ESA may be recommended by
the evaluator, and they may conduct lab tests.
Once phase one environmental site assessments ascertain a potential contamination risk
that requires much more investigation, evaluators perform a Phase II Environmental Site
Assessment Report. The Phase II ESA will confirm the presence of hazardous materials on
the property, helping protect a potential buyer, lender, investor, or another interested party on
the transaction from environmental liability.
Another difference is Phase II assessments are unquestionably more intrusive than Phase I. In
Phase I ESA, evaluators records things like deeds, aerial photographs, surveys, maps, and other
essential documents and even examine records of other nearby properties. While Phase II
assessment will assess more things like subsurface soil borings, groundwater monitoring well
installation, drum sampling, sampling of dry wells, floor drains and catch basins,
transformer/capacitor sampling for Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCBs), testing of underground
storage tanks and much more.
Some more benefits are – say if a Phase I determine if a vapor encroachment condition is
likely to exist at the subject property, the Phase II will further highlight potential remedial
actions that may be required to clean up the property.