Phase-1 and Phase-2 Environmental Site Assessment

Factus Environmental provides consulting services in environmental site assessment to help companies through the permitting process,  comply with environmental regulations or just understand environmental liabilities associated to a specific site

Phase-1 Environmental site assessment is a non-intrusive investigation that seeks to determine whether a particular site is or maybe subject to actual or potential contamination. It provides preliminary information about environmental conditions of a site and probable environmental liabilities. Phase-1 ESA identifies potentially contaminating activities, the pollutants of concerns and the main ones that have the potential to cause significant adverse impacts.

As per the procedure outlined in Canadian Standard Association document CSA-Z768-01, the main components of a typical Phase-1 ESA includes the following:

(a) a records review;
(b) a site visit;
(c) interviews; 
(d) an evaluation of information; and 
(e) reporting 


Phase-2 Environmental site assessment is an in-deep analytical, iterative process that seeks to characterize the levels of concentration or quantities of a substance of concern at a site and compare those levels to established regulatory criteria, the threshold limit values.It provides critical information for risk assessment with respect to human health and ecosystems safety.

In accordance to CSA-Z769-00, a Phase-2 ESA shall contain the following components 

(a) review of existing Phase 1 ESA or other background information;
(b) development of sampling plans;
(c) planning a site investigation;
(d) conducting site investigation;
(e) interpretation and evaluation of the data gathered during investigations; and
(f) reporting.



In some cases, a Phase 2 ESA may require several iterations of these components to meet the specific objectives outlined in the scope of work