4 Reasons Why Phase I Environmental Site Assessments are Different in California:

1. Regional Water Quality Control Boards: In most states, the regulations are statewide rules with maybe some variations for cities and counties. In California, the State Water Board grants a lot of power and autonomy to the Regional Water Quality Control Boards. The regional water boards are organized generally by watershed and may split counties. Water boards may have very different regulations. For example, the San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board developed Environmental Screening Levels (ESLs) for soil and groundwater contamination, whereas the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board uses different screening levels including Soil Screening Levels, CHHSLs for soil-gas (see below) and Maximum Contaminant Levels (MCLs) for groundwater.
2. CHHSLs: The California Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) published the California Human Health Screening Levels (CHHSLs) in 2005. The CHHSLs provide the user with a chemical-specific look-up table for what levels of soil-gas or indoor air concentrations represent a threat to human health. CHHSLs are not intended to be regulatory numbers but are often treated as such. CHHSLs are also famously conservative. You need an environmental consultant doing your Phase I ESA that knows how to interpret soil-gas and indoor air data in relation to CHHSLs and this requires a lot of California experience.
3. CUPAs: Certified Unified Program Agency (CUPAs) have a lot of power in California. CUPA are city or county agencies that have been more or less deputized to handle certain regulatory functions. An example of a CUPA is the City of Los Angeles Fire Department, which oversees releases from underground storage tanks (USTs), termed leaking USTs or LUSTs. To do proper regulatory due diligence during a Phase I Environmental Site Assessment your environmental professional must understand the California CUPAs.
4. CEQA: The California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) is California’s equivalent of the National Environmental Protection Act (NEPA). A Phase I Environmental Site Assessment sometimes has to deal with CEQA/NEPA issues like wetlands, endangered species, and/or historical resources as additional scope items.

Southern California Experience

Some recent projects and experience that provide insight into our robust Southern California consulting practice include:

Property Condition Assessments, 45-site portfolio in Southern California
Partner performed Property Condition Assessments on 45 office buildings mostly in Los Angeles, Long Beach, Riverside and San Bernardino. Our PCAs were done in support of acquisitions and were all completed within two weeks.

Probable Maximum Loss Reports, 33-site portfolio in Southern California
Partner performed a Probable Maximum Loss Reports on 33 multifamily assets in Orange County, mostly in Irvine, California and Newport Beach, California. Partner’s robust Seismic Risk Assessment practice routinely supports Fannie Mae DUS Lenders in assessing seismic risk.

Environmental Due Diligence on 330 Gas Stations in Southern California
Partner performed environmental due diligence on 330 gas stations located in the six large Southern California Counties: Los Angeles, Ventura, Orange, San Bernardino, and Riverside. The gas stations had a lot of subsurface data and over 100 open cases. Partner reduced a large amount of data and quantified the portfolio’s environmental liability for our client.