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Are Gas Stations Taboo for lenders

My previous experience with gas stations comes from a regulatory standpoint where the focus for evaluating the USTs was compliance. Currently, as an environmental professional, the evaluation of a gas station for a lender, involves more than just compliance when performing a Phase I ESA on gas station. The Energy Act of 2005 required that…

Phase II by any name is still Soil Testing (5 Comments)

Entry by JoeDerhake Entry What is the industry standard name for a Phase II?  Candidate names:  Phase II Environmental Site Assessment, Phase II Subsurface Investigation, Phase II Environmental Testing, Soil Testing?     Does it even matter?   Well, perhaps not much, but I think we are better off to use a common vocabulary.   According to ASTM…

Phase II by any name is still Soil Testing (4 Comments)

Entry by JoeDerhake Entry What is the industry standard name for a Phase II?  Candidate names:  Phase II Environmental Site Assessment, Phase II Subsurface Investigation, Phase II Environmental Testing, Soil Testing?     Does it even matter?   Well, perhaps not much, but I think we are better off to use a common vocabulary.   According to ASTM…

Phase II by any name is still Soil Testing (3 Comments)

Entry by JoeDerhake Entry What is the industry standard name for a Phase II?  Candidate names:  Phase II Environmental Site Assessment, Phase II Subsurface Investigation, Phase II Environmental Testing, Soil Testing?     Does it even matter?   Well, perhaps not much, but I think we are better off to use a common vocabulary.   According to ASTM…

TRIENCE (noun) – pertaining to and the study of the ENVIRONMENT, ENGINEERING AND ENERGY as they pertain to facility management

TRIENCE (noun) – pertaining to and the study of the ENVIRONMENT, ENGINEERING AND ENERGY as they pertain to facility management. Is Trience really a word?  Do people really study these things?  Are they teaching Trience in high school labs and college lecture halls?  Is Trience part of the newly enacted federal government regulations developed to…

Phase II by any name is still Soil Testing

Entry by JoeDerhake Entry What is the industry standard name for a Phase II?  Candidate names:  Phase II Environmental Site Assessment, Phase II Subsurface Investigation, Phase II Environmental Testing, Soil Testing?     Does it even matter?   Well, perhaps not much, but I think we are better off to use a common vocabulary.   According to ASTM…

Probable Maximum Loss Reports (1 Comment)

Entry by JoeDerhake Entry As an engineer that has been providing lenders Probable Maximum Loss (PML) reports for the past 15 years, I was hopeful that the two new ASTM Standards published in 2007 would standardize the practice of PMLs.    However, the ASTM Standards are overly flexible and have not resulted in sufficient uniformity.   For…

Foreclosure Phase I Environmental Audits (1 Comment)

Entry by JoeDerhake Entry This year I think half of the Phase I Environmental Audits that I do are on properties queued for foreclosure.  The Phase I Environmental Audits must meet the ASTM Standard 1527-2007, but in a foreclosure environment there are a few differences.   First, most clients want the Phase I Environmental Audit to be…

Building Energy Performance Disclosure

Entry by JoeDerhake Thank you to Tony Buonicore with Building Energy Performance News and Jack Huntress of EDR! As many of EDR’s commonground readership know, this April the ASTM approved the formation of a committee to develop a national standard on Building Energy Performance Disclosures.    EDR and Tony Buonicore (one of EDR’s founders) have provided…

SBA Foreclosures (2 Comments)

Entry by JoeDerhake This post is a summary of my presentation at the Environmental Bankers Association meeting this January on the subject of environmental due diligence during SBA foreclosures.   Everyone is doing environmental due diligence for new loans to meet SBA’s SOP 50-10 guidelines.  Well what about if you are doing a pre-foreclosure due diligence? …