EPA Approves New ASTM Standard For Phase 1 Environmental Site Assessments

Every eight years, standards for environmental Phase I reports are updated – and, typically, made more detailed and stringent. The standards were most recently updated in 2021, and the updated version was approved by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency ("EPA") for use beginning in February 2023.

BACKGROUND

Prospective buyers of real property, particularly commercial and industrial properties, routinely commission environmental consultants to prepare Phase I Environmental Site Assessments ("Phase I ESA") in order to educate themselves about potential environmental conditions they might face as owners, and often to satisfy a condition for qualifying for landowner liability protections available under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation & Liability Act of 1980 ("CERCLA," commonly known as the "Superfund" statute). Of particular importance to prospective buyers – and, since 2018, prospective tenants – is the opportunity to qualify as "bona