In the good state of the world, four out of five Phase 1 Environmental Site Assessments come back with no further recommendations. But what about in the bad state of the world?
In the bad state of the world the Phase 1 ESA recommends Phase 2 Environmental Testing and then the Phase 2 Environmental Report comes back hot. Often the deal dies, but what if you still want to the do the deal? Financial clients sometimes say that they can do the deal if they can just put a reliable number on the environmental contamination. The goal is a reliable Remedial Cost Estimate.
Two important questions must be asked before a reliable Remedial Cost Estimate can be prepared: 1) How big is the problem? 2) What will the government make us do about it?
Phase 3 Environmental Characterization: The Phase 2 ESA determines the presence or absence of contamination. The “Phase 3” or Environmental Site Characterization process determines how far the contamination goes in each direction: up, down, north, south, east, and west. The Environmental Site Characterization is often a more involved process, as big problems might require multiple iterations of testing.
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