Month: September 2012

Identifying Environmental Risk Through Appropriate Due Diligence

Posted on by Jeff Carnahan

Written by Darci Cummings, L.P.G., EnviroForensics

There are many situations that may merit environmental due diligence considerations.  Whether you’re considering purchasing, selling, or re-financing a property; expanding or renovating an existing facility; or just ensuring that your facility is compliant with the myriad of current environmental, health and safety regulations, it is vital that you understand all of the environmental and financial risks involved.

When considering environmental due diligence, it is often thought that a Phase I Environmental Site Assessment (ESA) is sufficient to discover environmental liabilities during a property transaction.  While a Phase I ESA may be sufficient to satisfy a lender or other interested party, environmental due diligence needs can be much more complex and cover a wide variety of potential environmental liabilities that may not be discovered during a Phase I ESA.  EnviroForensics will work with you to develop the appropriate scope of services to help you understand and consider the financial implications of all types of environmental risk, not just CERCLA (superfund) liability, which is the general objective of a Phase I ESA.  EnviroForensics can assess, manage, mitigate, or remediate those environmental risks to ensure that your transaction is a success.

Never is Too Late!

Posted on by Jeff Carnahan

Insurance Companies Runoff Leaves Policyholders Vulnerable

Written by Steve Henshaw, President and CEO of EnviroForensics. As seen in the August 2012 issue of Cleaner and Launderer.

Many business owners or drycleaners and manufacturing companies know that old general liability policies can provide a defense, even an indemnity, against environmental claims.  The net effect of such a defense can translate into payment and funding of necessary site investigation, legal, and remediation costs.  To put it into business terms, a dry cleaner or other manufacturing company that is saddled with the responsibility to pay to respond to expensive environmental claims can find relief, if they can find old general liability policies that were issued before the insurance industry started adding pollution exclusion language to the policies.  To that end, a property that has been impacted with solvents or other hazardous constituents can be restored to its pre-contaminated condition.  A property that was previously considered to be an environmental liability can be turned back into an asset. Continue reading “Never is Too Late!”