Environmental due diligence for commercial real estate.

Environmental Professional

Who can perform a Phase I ESA, and who signs ours.

Federal rules and the ASTM standard decide who may perform a Phase I. EPA’s All Appropriate Inquiries rule requires the inquiry to be done by, or under the supervision or responsible charge of, an Environmental Professional as defined in 40 CFR 312.10, and ASTM E1527-21 requires a Phase I to be performed by an Environmental Professional (Section 4.3).

The person must have the education, training and experience to exercise professional judgment about releases on a property. No license is enough on its own: each of the rule’s 4 routes also requires years of full-time relevant experience. A person must meet one of them:

• a current Professional Engineer or Professional Geologist license or registration, plus the equivalent of 3 years of full-time relevant experience;
• a federal, state, tribal or U.S. territory license or certification to perform environmental inquiries, plus 3 years;
• a bachelor’s or higher degree in engineering or science from an accredited institution, plus 5 years; or
• the equivalent of 10 years of full-time relevant experience.

Relevant experience means work on environmental site assessments or similar site investigations in which the person used professional judgment to form opinions about releases or threatened releases. State professional licensing or registration laws, such as those for geologists and engineers, still apply where they cover parts of the work; the federal definition does not preempt them (40 CFR 312.10(b)).

For SBA loans, SOP 50 10 8.1 adopts the same definition and adds two conditions: the Environmental Professional must be impartial and must carry errors and omissions insurance of at least $1,000,000 per claim or occurrence (Appendix 4). Every Phase I we deliver is performed by, or under the supervision of, an Environmental Professional who meets 40 CFR 312.10.

What the signature certifies.

The Environmental Professional signs the report and includes the two statements required by 40 CFR 312.21(d): that they meet the 312.10 definition; and that they have the specific qualifications, based on education, training and experience, to assess a property of this nature, history and setting, and developed and performed the inquiry in conformance with 40 CFR Part 312.

The report must also state the Environmental Professional’s qualifications (312.21(c)(3)). ASTM E1527-21 adds a statement that the Phase I was performed in conformance with that practice (EPA’s comparison of the rule and the standard, page 9).

Who visits the site.

A qualified local field professional, booked when you authorize, makes the site visit under the Environmental Professional’s supervision. The rule lets a person who is not an Environmental Professional assist with the inquiry under an Environmental Professional’s supervision or responsible charge (40 CFR 312.10(b)), and SBA accepts that help when an Environmental Professional reviews and signs the Phase I. The opinions, the conclusions and the signature are the Environmental Professional’s.

What to check in any Phase I report.

Whichever firm prepares your Phase I, including ours, you can confirm these items in a few minutes. Each one comes from the federal rule, the ASTM standard or SBA’s SOP 50 10 8.1.

• The Environmental Professional’s signature, with both 40 CFR 312.21(d) statements.
• A statement of the Environmental Professional’s qualifications (40 CFR 312.21(c)(3)).
• A statement that the Phase I was performed in conformance with ASTM E1527-21 (EPA’s comparison of the rule and the standard, page 9).
• An opinion on whether the inquiry identified conditions indicative of releases, and any data gaps that affect the Environmental Professional’s ability to identify those conditions, with comments on their significance (40 CFR 312.21(c)(1) and (2)).
• The dates of the interviews, the government records review, the site visit and the Environmental Professional’s declaration, plus the lien search if the Environmental Professional ran it. Under 40 CFR 312.20, each of these must fall within 180 days before you acquire the property, and all other work in the inquiry, including the historical research, within one year. Both limits are measured from the dates the work was done, not the report date (ASTM E1527-21, Sections 4.6.1 and 4.6.3).
• On an SBA loan: a report dated within one year of the date the SBA loan number is issued, and a conclusion that either no further investigation is warranted or the risk warrants more (SOP 50 10 8.1, Section A, Chapter 5, Paragraph E.3, and Appendix 4).
• On an SBA loan: the Appendix 5 reliance letter, unmodified, signed by the Environmental Professional and, if the Environmental Professional works for or is retained by a firm, by an authorized representative of that firm (SOP 50 10 8.1, Appendices 4 and 5).

Check a report’s dates with the Phase I validity calculator

Sources

1. 40 CFR 312.10, Definitions, eCFR, accessed October 2026
2. 40 CFR 312.11, References, eCFR, accessed October 2026
3. 40 CFR 312.20, All appropriate inquiries, eCFR, accessed October 2026
4. 40 CFR 312.21, Results of inquiry by an environmental professional, eCFR, accessed October 2026
5. 40 CFR 312.22, Additional inquiries, eCFR, accessed October 2026
6. ASTM E1527-21, Standard Practice for Environmental Site Assessments: Phase I Environmental Site Assessment Process, ASTM International, accessed October 2026
7. Comparison of All Appropriate Inquiries Regulation, the ASTM E1527-13 Phase I Environmental Site Assessment Process, and ASTM E1527-21 Phase I Environmental Site Assessment Process, U.S. EPA, docket EPA-HQ-OLEM-2021-0946 (copy hosted by Wisconsin DNR), accessed October 2026
8. SOP 50 10 8.1, Lender and Development Company Loan Programs, U.S. Small Business Administration, accessed October 2026
9. Lender Liability and Applicability of All Appropriate Inquiries, U.S. EPA, accessed October 2026