Phase I Environmental Site Assessments (ESA)

Environmental Site Assessments are performed prior to property transfer or the closing of industrial and commercial real estate transactions to determine if recognized environmental conditions exist on a subject property.

Many commercial properties carry environmental liabilities. Any liabilities associated with a property are transferred to the new owner following acquisition. To prevent or minimize buying these liabilities, performing proper environmental due diligence prior to your real estate transaction can provide you with information to assist in making an informed business decision.

Lehua Environmental Inc. can provide you with a Phase I Environmental Site Assessment that can identify and quantify possible liabilities. By performing proper environmental due diligence, you are also creating a second layer of protection through the “Innocent Land Owner Act” against unidentifiable liabilities as long as it can be proven a thorough investigation was conducted prior to purchasing a property.

A Phase I Environmental Site Assessment (ESA) is the gold standard for evaluating the environmental liability associated with a real estate asset. A Phase I ESA is used to identify actual and potential environmental concerns and contamination at a site that may impact the property value or affect claim to an “innocent landowner” exemption following acquisition.

Lehua Environmental Inc. performs ESAs in accordance with the most recent American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) Standard E 1527-05, Standard Practice for Environmental Site Assessment.

Financial institutions frequently require that a Phase I ESA be conducted to accomplish this task. Overlooking this concern can cost you substantial future environmental expenditures, even if you did not create or contribute to the contamination.

• Review of historical and current environmental records and documentation pertaining to the site
• Regulatory records review, including Federal and State records concerning the property and the neighboring properties
• Performance of an on-site visit to view present conditions and evaluate any likely environmentally hazardous site history
• Evaluation of risks of neighboring properties upon the subject property
• Interview of persons knowledgeable regarding the property history (past owners, present owner, key site manager, present tenants, neighbors)
• Professional report, including conclusions and recommendations concerning the property, based on our professional judgment and findings.

Lehua Environmental Inc. is well versed in numerous, lender-specific scopes of work. Our ESAs include extensive documentation of a property’s environmental condition, providing resolution of detected recognized environmental conditions and, when necessary, recommendations to bring these conditions to closure:

• Property overview Assessments
• ASTM compliant Phase I environmental site assessments and transaction screen questionnaires
• Client/lender-specific Phase I formats
• Due diligence environmental audits and transaction screening
• Environmental inspections
• Risk assessments
• Environmental impact statements

Phase II Environmental Site Assessments (ESA) / Subsurface Investigation

If the Phase I ESA indicates there is a potential for environmental impact, Lehua Environmental Inc. can provide a Phase II ESA. The Phase II ESA will evaluate the environmental impact and assess the nature and extent of the concern.

A Phase II ESA normally entails collecting representative samples of surface stains, subsurface soils, groundwater, and/or building materials to determine if hazardous constituents are present at levels that represent environmental concern.

The Phase II project may include

• Subsurface soil investigations
• Groundwater investigations
• Soil vapor investigations
• Ground-penetrating radar (GPR)
• Monitoring well installation
• Soil boring installations and sampling
• Contamination assessment
• Groundwater modeling
• Comprehensive site sampling plans
• Underground storage tanks (USTs) investigation
• Underground well sampling

Just Give Us A Call

We will provide you with a proposal tailored to your budget, time constraints, and your specific needs. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us through our web page or call us at (808) 494-0365 and ask our staff any questions you may have regarding asbestos in your building.