Meet the Phase 2 Environmental Site Assessment – she’s the dreaded next step after the Phase 1 ESA. She’s got a bit of a bad rap for being a pain, a roadblock, too expensive, and maybe even a deal breaker.

So what exactly does a Phase 2 Environmental Site Assessment entail? Does it really live up to its reputation?

Phase 2 Environmental Testing involves soil, soil-gas and/or groundwater sampling and analysis. It’s not a blind search, and does not require “Swiss cheesing” the entire property by poking holes all over the place. A Phase 2 Environmental is a very targeted assessment of only the specific Areas of Concern and Chemicals of Concern discovered in the Phase 1 ESA report. For example, at a former gas station property where the tanks were removed without proper documentation and testing, we will sample just in the vicinity of the former tanks, and only for the chemicals that were reported or likely to have been stored in those tanks (petroleum hydrocarbons and gasoline additives such as BTEX and MTBE). This helps to keep the scope of work very focused and cost effective.

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