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If you are considering purchasing a commercial real estate property, you may have heard the term Phase I Environmental Site Assessment (ESA). So, what is a Phase I ESA? What is the process and why is it important? We break down the specifics regarding the main component of completing environmental due diligence on a property…

The Small Business Administration (SBA) recently issued the yearly update to their Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) 50 10 5(K). Included in every version of the SOP are Environmental Policies and Procedures, which must be followed when making a loan using commercial real estate as collateral.  With each SOP revision, PM Environmental carefully reviews the edits…

It’s a new year and there’s big news on the horizon for environmental regulations in Michigan. Two pieces of regulatory legislation passed at the end of 2018 are potential game changers for regulators, property investors, and lenders. They significantly increase available cleanup and Brownfield funding and may impact both cleanup criteria and the means and…

Every year, several PM Environmental (PM) employees work diligently in the spring and fall to complete environmental site assessments associated with affordable housing developers submittal of applications for Low Income Housing Tax Credits (LIHTC) during competitive funding rounds through the Michigan State Housing Development Authority (MSHDA).  According to MSHDA, Michigan’s LIHTC program was developed as…

One of our traditions at PM Environmental is to give back to the communities in which we reside.  In fact, it happens to be one of our core values.  Dedication to our business community is a large part of who we are and we make a point of that by supporting charities throughout the year…

Could a state-supported underground storage tank (UST) trust fund offer relief for cleanup costs on your property? We address some common questions about these varied and sometimes confusing environmental “insurance policies”. What are UST Trust Funds? Underground Storage Tank (UST) Trust Funds, also known as UST Financial Assurance Funds have been established in most states…

For decades, Perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), comprised of more than 4,000 individual compounds, including two well known regulated compounds perfluorooctanesulfonate (PFOS) and perfluorooctanoic (PFOA), were used in a range of industrial and consumer applications and processes like plating, material coating, lubrication, vapor suppression, cookware, food storage, packaging products, carpet and upholstery, fire fighting products,…

Pursuing a merger or acquisition? Make sure your valuation process considers all of the costs – including the cost of environmental compliance, deferred maintenance and legacy environmental issues. A company’s balance sheet details its assets and its liabilities at a given point in time.  An individual, business or group of investors looking to merge with…

The field of environmental compliance has its own language, and it is a virtual alphabet soup of acronyms. While we won’t try to include them all, we’ve stirred together some of the regulatory abbreviations commonly used in compliance plans developed for industrial properties, just to give you a taste.   Spill Prevention, Control and Countermeasure (SPCC)…

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently updated their 2015 federal Underground Storage Tank (UST) regulations.  The new set of requirements, which went into effect on October 13, 2018, were enacted to ensure that USTs are constructed, maintained, and operated in such a manner that petroleum and other regulated substances are stored safely. According to the EPA, there…