The objective of a Phase I Environmental Site Assessment, or Stage 1 Preliminary Site Investigation, is to provide an evaluation of a property and surrounding areas that may be potentially impacted (contaminated), based on historical and current land uses and activities.
Phase I is conducted to identify the types of potential contaminants of concern regulated under the British Columbia Contaminated Sites Regulation (BC CSR) that may be associated with areas of potential environmental concern.
Typical scope of work for a Phase I ESA includes:
- Performing desktop reviews, database searches and record retrievals, to obtain available historical and current information regarding the property and its surrounding areas
- Conducting a site reconnaissance to document the property’s current conditions; the reconnaissance will include a detailed visual documentation of the site, with a focus on current or historic locations for indicators or presence of likely or actual impacted area
- Interviewing current and/or former owners and other parties such as government officials who can, with reasonable attempts, be contacted respecting information on activities that may have caused environmental impacts
- Presenting the findings in a Phase I ESA report.
