Documents in agency files can provide important information on the scope of contamination, how the contamination was assessed and other valuable information on the remedy/institutional controls. Thus, many clients expect that environmental consultants routinely review regulatory agency files when assessing potential RECs at a site.
However, many phase 1 “commodity shops” or high volume firms frequently take advantage of some ambiguity in the ASTM E1527 Standard to avoid this task which allows them to underprice firms that take the time to review agency files more comprehensive reviews.
I discuss the agency file review in the current issue of the Practical Real Estate Lawyer. The article may is available from this link: PREL1205_GroundBrkers