An examination of both recent and historical activity on a site or piece of land is known as an environmental site assessment. This is a crucial tool to use to verify that a property is risk-free from environmental hazards before buying. These checklists provide instructions on how to detect potential liabilities and can be altered in accordance with the particulars of the location. Environmental site assessments (ESA) are essential for determining a site’s level of contamination and creating a workable management strategy. The main goal of the approach is to make sure that the location is safe for visitors and personnel to work on while also being environmentally sound.
What is meant by an Environmental Site Assessment?
An examination of any specific area’s past and present activities is a component of environmental site assessment. The main objective is to ascertain the likelihood of pollution and its corresponding repercussions on both people and ecosystems. It might take a skilled environmental consultant weeks or even years to complete the task, depending on how many steps are required and how long each one is. Contamination examples include dangerous chemicals, unhealthy soil, contaminated groundwater, and poor surface water quality. Buyers can avoid stringent liability for any pre-existing contamination once an ESA has been completed and can ensure they are aware of what they are entering into.
What are the phases of conducting an ESA?
The three distinct phases into which ESAs are divided are as follows:
Phase I – Phase I, sometimes referred to as a preliminary environmental site assessment, is where all of the site data that is currently available is examined to evaluate whether or not contamination is likely. The information that is frequently examined during this phase includes the site history, the environmental context, historical and ongoing activities on the site, the site drainage, and the present uses of the property nearby. The site’s documentation in all forms is consulted. Now the environmental expert must decide whether there is any reason to suspect that contamination may be present at the location. If the client wants to continue, the next step of environmental site assessments is to administer a phase II ESA.
Phase II – Step II entails actively testing for the existence of contaminants and figuring out both their concentration and distribution. This step is referred to as a detailed environmental site assessment. Assessments of the soil and groundwater, sampling from drums, transformers, or capacitors, as well as samples from items like mold, asbestos, and lead, are all part of this phase’s testing. The goal is to establish the veracity of the theories and suspicions that were initially conceived during the first phase. The ESA comes to an end if the tests are negative and there are no indications of contamination. The third and final ESA step is advised, though, if contamination is found at the site.
Phase III – The repair of a site based on the data gathered in the first two stages of an ESA constitutes the last phase. In order to determine the sorts of remediation that are required, additional testing, sampling, and monitoring are required. Studies on the viability of remediation are also required, as is a comparison of the costs, logistics, and available clean-up options. The resolution procedure could take a single day or many years, depending on the problem. Solutions like chemical oxidation or biological remediation are needed for some of the more complex issues. Even while the environmental consultant can take longer to fix some of the more complicated problems, it is still preferable to putting your employees’ health and safety at risk by having them work in a dangerous environment.
When is an ESA required?
When the planning scheme on property that was once used for industrial operations or the storage of hazardous chemicals is about to be changed to allow for the construction of homes, a primary school, a preschool, or a childcare facility, an environmental site evaluation is necessary. A planning authority may also ask for an audit to verify that a site’s environmental circumstances are appropriate for the use it is intended for. An audit might be requested by the site owner or occupier as part of the commercial due diligence procedures. It is up to the environmental consultant to decide if the site you are being assessed needs additional ESAs; in this case, they must have good justification for believing a phase II ESA is essential.
In conclusion
It is no secret that site evaluations can be a difficult procedure. Fortunately, there is a solution; it is crucial to develop checklists for
specific to the site in order to guarantee that your site assessment is as thorough and precise as possible. You may meet with site assessment teams who can swiftly produce evaluations customized to your needs and guarantee compliance by calling a reliable agency. All stages of environmental site assessment and repair are handled by professional environmental specialists who have received comprehensive training. The inspectors will assemble all the pertinent details that their investigation has uncovered and offer them to you in a report that is quite detailed and includes the main conclusions from the evaluation.