Environmental Site Assessment (ESA)
An Environmental Site Assessment (ESA) is an environmental document used in the process of determining if a parcel of real property has, within its boundaries or on adjacent land, any recognized environmental condition (an environmental problem) such as leaking petroleum tanks that could require cleanup prior to the sale or development of the parcel in question.
ESAs encompass a three-phase process:
Visual identification of environmental issues,
Sampling and analysis of the substances suspected of being on and/or near the site to determine the extent of contamination;
Cleanup of the hazardous substances as required.
If no reconginzed environmental condition is found duing a Phase 1 ESA, a recommendation of no further inquiry is usually included in the Phase 1 document and this action normally ends the ESA process for the specific site.
The ESA is used:
To provide an all-appropriate inquiry document as part of a new landowner's liability protection against costly environmental cleanup under the Superfund regulations.
As a decision-making document by banks, lending institutions, and others providing funds to purchase property in the private sector.
To meet city and state requirements for Brownfield remediation for abandoned or orphaned property cleanup programs.
The U.S. EPA has made revisions to the ESA requiremnents. These changes will become effective in November 2006. GBA's staff of Environmental Professionals have each received the special EPA-sponsored training needed to incorporate required changes into our ESA docuements.
Link - http://www.edrnet.com/reports/esaindex.htm
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