EBA Summer Conference 2018

Perspectives on Revision to SBA SOP 50 10 5 J

Eric Adams, District Counsel for the San Francisco District Office of the US Small Business Administration (SBA) and chair of the SBA’s environmental committee, attended EBA to discuss recent revisions to the environmental portion of the SOP.  Georgina Dannatt of Bank of the West, David Lambert of Wells Fargo, and Janet Annan of Partner Engineering and Science also joined in the panel discussion. Discussion points included the following:

• The new historical use requirement that the history of a property must be documented back to 1940 or first developed use for RSRA reports. Eric discussed the deficiencies he was seeing in reports including lack of or limited reference to historical documentation and the panel discussed how data gaps in RSRAs should be addressed.
• The SBA now requires a Phase I and Phase II ESA for properties that have or historically had drycleaners on them, including hydrocarbon based drycleaners. Eric discussed that the requirement for hydrocarbon based drycleaners was based primarily on feedback from the environmental engineering community. The panel also discussed the challenge of conducting Phase II ESAs on hydrocarbon based drycleaners based on the lack of regulatory guidance and analytical standards. The panel also discussed how to evaluate previous Phase II ESAs for drycleaners to determine if they meet SBA standards.

The Great Lakes Legacy Act Sediment Remediation Program

Jennifer A Willkie, Geosyntec Consultants Inc.

Jennifer discussed how the Great Lakes Legacy Act cost-share program was created to encourage accelerated remediation of contaminated sediment sites. Under this program, non-federal entities can remediate sites in collaboration with the EPA Great Lakes National Program Office, with the federal government paying for up to 65% of the remedial costs. The presentation provided an overview of the sediment remediation technologies and examples of how the GLLA Program can offer an attractive alternative to typical enforcement-oriented programs such as Superfund, RCRA and analogous State programs.

Lender and Consultant Perspectives on Phase II Scope; How Much is Enough?

Thomas Rengert, Wells Fargo; Peter Dollander, BB&T; Karla Smith, AEI Consultants

This panel explored the influence of lender risk appetites on the scope of work in the Phase II investigation. For the same collateral, one lender may be comfortable with a soils gas investigation and another lender may want to also include a groundwater investigation. The panelists discussed the site conditions and other driving factors the lead to different lender approaches, and how to communicate with consultants to get the Phase II that reflects the bank approach.

Lender Risk Management in the Margins

Georgina Dannatt, Bank of the West; Brian Kirby, Bremer Bank, Michael Wearne, Columbia Bank; Stuart Weese, Hancock Whitney Bank; and Mary Clare Maxwell, JP Morgan Chase Bank

Non- ASTM, or business environmental risk, can have a significant material risk to collateral properties. This panel discussed how these issues were approached when the answer was in the grey area and discussed how the material risks can be mitigated.

PFAS- Emerging Contaminant Developments

Tony Anthony, AKT Peerless

This presentation explored the varying regulatory response across the county with an update on current and third-party lawsuits. The US EPA has identified PFAS as emerging contaminants and the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry has estimated that 98% of Americans have traces of PFAS in their blood. PFAS has become so pervasive in society because of its wide spread use in many products. In the future, PFAS contamination may influence the value of property.