Alliance Consultants' personnel have been assisting clients in Michigan and the Midwest with environmental risk management and due diligence for over 30 years. Our team of highly experienced professionals have the tools and skills necessary to support a wide variety of services.
Environmental due diligence has become a prerequisite for real estate transactions to adhere to All Appropriate Inquiry (AAI) and to quantify real property risk above and below ground. Alliance Consultants is an essential resource and partner for property due diligence. We have also written and implemented cost-effective and efficient environmental policies for multiple financial institutions.
With a proven track record of success as a leading environmental consulting firm, we pride ourselves on providing impactful, long-term solutions to complex problems.
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Environmental Risk Management Services:
Environmental Lender Package | Government database review
The Environmental Lender Package is a new product that consists of a government environmental database search as well as history of the property packaged. If the property is located in an urban area, Alliance Consultants will look at historic fire insurance maps and historic city directories. If the property is in a rural area or the previous is not available, we will review historical aerial photographs. After review, a summary of findings and opinions will be included in the report.
ASTM Transaction Screen
The American Society for Testing & Materials, or ASTM, Transaction Screen Report provides a measure of flexibility to its users, while supporting the innocent landowner defense to CERCLA liability. (It is not currently settled as to whether this tool will satisfy all requirements for the “innocent landowner defense”.) The transaction screen costs significantly less than a Phase I site assessment and may be performed by an environmental consultant or by any other person (if properly trained). The ASTM Transaction Screen Process consists of a questionnaire containing approximately two-dozen questions and more than fifty pages of explanatory material. The questionnaire is to be completed in conjunction with a site visit and uses responses from the property owner or operator as well as the inspector’s own observations. A government environmental records search and some basic historical research (generally fire insurance maps) are also part of the ASTM Transaction Screen standard.
Phase I Environmental Site Assessment
The Phase I Environmental Site Assessment (ESA) consists of six major parts: a government records review, site reconnaissance, interviews with key personnel, detailed historic research, title search (or the equivalent) and the preparation of a narrative report including the professional opinion about recognized environmental conditions. The Phase I report does not include invasive testing.
Phase I Environmental Site Assessment Update
A Phase I ESA (or an ASTM Transaction Screen) performed within 180 days prior to the anticipated closing date may generally be accepted without modification or update. A Phase I ESA or Transaction Screen more than 180 days old may be merely updated, as appropriate, thereby saving substantial costs to the customer. Update of a Phase I ESA requires, at a minimum, an updated database search, a new site reconnaissance, new interviews with local officials, and new interviews with the owner and the operator.
Phase II Environmental Site Assessment
The Phase II Site Assessment is an investigation designed to confirm or deny the presence of contamination, identified as an item requiring further inquiry in the Phase I report or the Transaction Screen. Unlike the Phase I, the Phase II investigation includes invasive sampling of soils and/or groundwater.
Baseline Environmental Assessment – Michigan
A Baseline Environmental Assessment (BEA) is an evaluation of environmental conditions which exist at a facility located in Michigan at the time of purchase, occupancy or foreclosure that reasonably defines the existing conditions and circumstance at the facility, so that in the event of a subsequent release there is a means of distinguishing a new release from existing contamination. (A “facility” is defined as an area, place or property where the residential cleanup criteria have been exceeded.)
Due Care Plan
This is a commonly used term to describe the actual cleanup or remediation of a site until such time as analytical testing indicates that no further action is required under appropriate regulations.