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Phase 1 Environmental Site Assessments

Benefit for Seller – Provides a clean bill of health to avoid litigation that may be associated with environmental issues of a property.
Benefit for Purchaser – Provides a level of comfort that property is free of environmental issues that may result in litigation or remediation.
Benefit for Lenders – Ability to manage risks, and lower risk management costs.
Benefit for Realtors – Ability to make appropriate environmental disclosures and help avoid litigation.

Purchasing or leasing property includes the risk of acquiring environmental conditions caused by previous owners.  The costs of cleaning up or managing the adverse impacts of contamination can vary widely, but even small unanticipated expenses are always unwelcome. Some environmental problems have the potential of significantly impacting the market value of a property.

A properly conducted Environmental Site Assessment (ESA) can provide a good general indication of the past and existing conditions on a site that could indicate a recognized environment condition. The Phase 1 ESA is intended to provide a review of known and observable conditions that allows for the evaluation of environmental conditions at a site or property.

CES uses the latest ASTM standard for Phase 1 ESA’s: Standard Practice for Environmental Site Assessments: Phase 1 Environmental Site Assessment Process, and expands on each of the four ASTM-defined Phase 1 ESA components:

  • Records Review,
  • Site Reconnaissance,
  • Interviews, and
  • Reporting.

The former principals of Certified Environmental Services were members of the E-50 Task Force Committees that revise the ASTM standards.  Since CES has been involved in the standard making process, we are in the best position to provide sound technical and administrative direction and guidance to our clients.  Our professional staff, dedicated to performing and reviewing our Environmental Site Assessments, include registered Professional Geologists (PGs), Environmental Professionals (EPs), Registered Environmental Assessors (REAs), and AHERA Building Inspector/Management Planners.


Phase 1 ESA

CES has prepared thousands of Phase 1 ESAs for properties in Arizona, California, New York, Michigan, Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, Nevada, Utah and Canada.  We now focus entirely our home state of Arizona. Our range of services has included Phase 1 Environmental Site Assessments for vacant land to complex industrial facilities. Our clients have also used our recommendations to conduct Phase II Environmental Site Assessment sampling activities to further determine the environmental impacts to soil and water due to past practices in order to avoid costly delays or overruns in construction and development of commercial and/or industrial sites.