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loved that movie
Yes, carb cleaners from that era often had PCE. And dirty, used solvents were often dumped in the waste oil tank or anywhere else convenientd.
5 ppm (assumed in soil) is a fairly good hit for perc since 5 ppb in groundwater would be a concern in many states.....how deep is groundwater in the area? Depending on the amount leaked, this could have caused a fairly significant problem.
You should get 3 local environmental firms to quote you a Phase I on the site if you truly want to buy it. Ask them to talk about the site and get comfortable about the projec manager's level of experience with such sites. The person actually doing the work should know service stations well and should have done a minimum of 10 such sites to really understand what goes on at these sites. This holds in particular at the site you are dealing with which has a rich history.
Another point - not making accusations, but I have seen "seller's forgetfulness" come up when there were buried or other problems one wishes he could "forget". You might need a geophysical survey for more tanks. Most service stations have more than the one you implied. Subsurface soil and or groundwater testing might be needed.
Ultimately, the price you pay for a Phase I ESA might be small compared to the future migraine you avoid.....or, it might give you leverage to negotiate a better deal if impairment is found.
This site could be harmless of it could cost someone a fortune - needlessly! Remember the old adage: only a fool serves as his own lawyer. There is probably a corollary, only a ______ serves as his own environmental consultant. I'll let someone else fill in this blank!!
Wow. "Been there, done that". IMHO, client was disconnected and did not listen to the consultant. Like I said, "been there, done that".
I would suggest that there is a little more to the picture here than meets the eye. Yes there might be a very few people doing $700 Phase Is but not many. If there are, it cannot be much of a product and they are obviously looking for Phase II add-on work when they walk out the door.
I would suspect that most of these are subcontract jobs wherein a larger company buys the radius report, aerials and sanborns for the sub. The sub must provide everything else. This is how Land America used to operate with a virtual company of nationwide subs that they did not even know, for the most part. They ususally paid about $900 or so per job, depending on the property (they went bankrupt a couple of years ago).
There are other firms that picked up their pieces and I would imagine this is what you are seeing....the new firms have lowered the rates even further.
It is rough out there for sure.
There is a vote in the fall in California to legalize pot statewide. If successful, perhaps you could market your energy services, in the future, to small commercial growers. Probably a tough sell though.....most of these folks are not just self medicaters but also self starters.
Been there.....DONE THAT!!
Yes, listen carefully to what LSchnapf said. This is a serious issue. The client is buying this piece of property and he is relying on you as his EP to protect him. To protect yourself, recommend that your client fully assess and take care of this liability. Interesting that LSchapf mentioned OR as I had a crafty lawyer try to come after me on an asbestos case in OR just like this. Believe me, the lawyer WILL NOT be reading CERCLA, AAI, ASTM or anything. They will only charge that you DID NOT protect your client and you will have to defend yourself. What to do? Recommend full assessment and removal be done by either him or the seller. Then if the client refuses, it is his liability. This is NOT a gray area. This is a real liability. You must not take HIS liability.
The company insurance should cover you unless there is gross negligence. You should always note in your calendar or however you track what you do each day i.e., your Job, Book what you did on the project, i.e. "reviewed John Doe's Report xxxx-xxx for grammatical and spelling and general content on January xx, 2009...and any other brief notes you feel appropriate....
That being said...be careful what you document. Obviously don't write stuff like: report sucked, report was full of errors...etc.
That might sound silly but some people would be surprised what I've seen in some tech field logs and if those get subpoened...
This is a tough one for me. If maintenance is discontinued and the bonding company or other financial instrument goes under, this capped feature could become a very active REC...not historical. And in Northern California, where there was heavy flooding a few years back if I recall, this could be bad news. I would have to do some 1527-05 research before I gave a quick HREC or REC answer on it but I would agree it is certainly one of the two....if I to go with one or the other without that research I would agree with your first inclination and say REC.
Update.....thank you for the all the input....I am not sure why someone above thought above that Phase II would be part of Phase I but that was never intended...this was always intended to be Phase II work if approved....by proposal...
Anyhow, I looked at the site and the drains were stained from discharges. There was no one to talk to. Agencies had no info as no permitting was required. Original owner was long gone (bankrupt a decade ago). That's about all the research you can do for what little you get now days for a Phase I...it's strictly blow and go as you know. So, to cut to the chase, the client requested a proposal for Phase II, received the proposal and then decided not to go forward. The client had originally expressed great concern over the photo processing area due to his personal knowledge of a similar photo processing site that had cost another investor, a friend of his, a small fortune to cleanup. So to answer someone's question above, yes, there is precedent for these areas potentially costing a lot of money, reportedly, although I do not have firsthand knowledge of such. I thought that this would be an interesting case because all of the fellows that responded had a variety of answers, and like me, a fair amount of experience (I have personally been involved with thousands of assessments and cleanups since the 1980s). I confess, I kinda played dumb just to get all of your input without any bias from me.
Anyhow, I think the story is that most EPs never seriously call these areas out for further investigation so that is why there is little knowledge of the issue. And, on those occasions when the areas are recommended for assessment, as in this case, the client probably often says no.
This is the first job I had worked on with this client but I think he decided that he did not want to (potentially) open a can of worms and thus would let sleeping dogs lie...There was more to the story but some details will remain untold lest this get too specific if you know what I mean. I do regret that we will never know whether there was subsurface impact in this case or not!
I'm not sure what you mean by confusing RCRA/CERCLA with a Phase I but I agree with you that these things have traditionally not been given much attention.
I think you are right, LSchnapf, the leaking drain line could be a big issue. VOCs should never go into plumbing systems anywhere...if they did.
I just did a search on line and the VOCs most often mentioned in a quick search of 10 articles in connection with photoprocessing are TCE and toluene. It appears from some of the references that silver and VOCs are the big cleanup items. Thanks for all your input guys.