Guide to Alternative Approaches During Phase 1 ESA Environmental Concerns

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A Phase 1 Environmental site assessment, widely known as ESA, is concluded to research the ongoing and historical employment of any property as part of a commercial real estate transaction. The motive of Phase 1 Environmental assessment is to recognize attested or possible site contamination. Furthermore, the entire phase 1 Environmental site assessment includes a solid record review, interviews, site visits, and report writing. 

Purpose of Phase 1 Environmental Site Assessment 

When choosing a new project, either a commercial, residential, or massive-scale land development, environmental due diligence, particularly phase 1 ESA, is a vital step in selecting the right property. Some commercial real estate transactions need at least a level 1 environmental assessment prior to leading any transaction to ensure that the property is absolutely free from any contamination, which may have resulted from past or present activities. Most importantly, under perfect conditions, your environmental consultant may offer a report without any possible concerns. 

After the potential contamination is confirmed, the first thing experts will do is contact you to discuss the problem and resolve it with a suitable solution. By doing extra research, analysis, interviews and risk assessment, experts may find that evidence of possible contamination doesn’t create a consequential risk to the property. 

Even though the process is performed during the Phase 1 Environmental assessment, owners may be more willing to offer additional information after the potential contamination is detected. As a result, further investigation may show that evidence of possible contamination doesn’t have a massive risk.

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Alternative Approaches Vs Alternative Design in ESA

Alternatives are ideally referred to as a variety of ‘alternative approaches’ in phase 1 ESA to attain the purposes of the action, not only ‘alternative designs.’ An alternative approach is a practically different way to accomplish the goals; an alternative design is a practically similar way. For instance, an alternative approach to constructing a highway would be the extension of public transit. However, an alternative design would be a different arrangement of the highway. Another example, an alternative approach to the diffusing of pesticides to handle weeds would be a balanced pest management program. But an alternative design would be a different kind of pesticide. 

Alternatives development Approaches in ESA

Basically, alternative approaches are options, choices or courses of actions; they are key mediums to attain ends. From the perspective of phase 1 ESA, these ends involved a certain company’s goals and wider society goals like the protection and promotion of environmental quality. Feasibly, an essential part of the ESA procedure is the development of the set of alternatives that convert into the choice set and the center of analyses. However, what are good alternative approaches? 

Every agency should analyze the environmental effects of a proposed action and its alternatives and note down the analyses in an ESA report. Yet, the goal is not just to assess effects and finish an ESA; instead, it’s to enhance the quality of decisions. The aim is that the ESA process may offer environmental information that will assist agencies in taking actions that protect, revamp, and improve the environment. 

The section on alternative approaches is the core of the phase 1 environmental assessment. In this section, agencies must:  

  • Strictly explore and impartially evaluate all logical alternatives and for alternatives which were rejected after extensive study, briefly discuss the reasons behind rejecting them. 
  • Allocate substantial treatment to every alternative reviewed in detail involving the proposed action so that reviewers may assess their competitive standards. 
  • Incorporate logical alternatives, not within the jurisdiction of the lead agency. 
  • Comprise the alternative of no action.
  • Recognize the agency’s favoured alternative approaches, if one or more exists, in the draft statement and spot such alternatives in the final statement unless another law restricts the expression of such a preference.  
  • Include relevant mitigation measures not already involved in the proposed action or alternative approaches. 

Even though such regulations focus on rigour, objectivity and detail, they appeal mostly to ‘alternatives analysis’, which happen after the alternatives have already been developed. The regulations don’t offer clear-cut guidance on which alternatives should be incorporated, other than to need the consideration of the ‘no action’ alternative.

Conclusion 

Generally, environmental due diligence experts don’t wish to give you bad news, but in some situations, they have no other choice as it can save you liability and expense in the long term. Ensure to get in touch with a trusted company for a reliable phase 1 ESA process on your project site. Moreover, going on with a transaction where a possible environmental concern isn’t recognized in the due diligence procedure can be far expensive in the future if the issue resurfaces after you buy it or during a redevelopment project. You must understand that it’s not worth the money to buy a property where there is an increased environmental risk. 

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