Detectives work

By Edmund S. Tijerina

When Milwaukee's Historic King Drive Business Improvement District built the Ameritech King Commerce Center, the extent of cleaning up the former Imperial Knitting building was not yet known. Choosing a firm to conduct an assessment was crucial.

"In our case, we sought someone used to doing urban assessments," said Randy Roth, executive director of the Historic King Drive Business Improvement District. "We were looking for experience in comparable projects, comparable cost, comparable site, comparable location."

Being prepared is the most important part in getting an assessment that is both accurate and valuable, environmental consultants say.

"Most people think (an assessment) is something you purchase as a commodity," said Bill Kralj, head of the environmental section of Earth Tech in Milwaukee. "I've always found that the people who utilize their consultants well are those who do their half of the bargain."

To begin with, make sure a firm certifies that it performs its work in accordance with standards from the American Society for Testing and Materials. This will ensure an objective level of competence. From here, it gets subjective and more difficult to evaluate.

Take the same care as when hiring a professional for a job, such as checking references, said Frank Schultz, remediation and redevelopment program supervisor for the southeast region of the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources.

"Talk to other clients," Schultz said. "Did they submit a report in a timely manner? Did they stay within budget?"

Law firms that do environmental work also can be good sources, says Dave Rudig, director of environmental engineering at HNTB Corp. in Milwaukee, who suggests contacting some of the city's larger firms that have experience working with environmental consultants.

Get a lawyer

Roth takes it a step further and urges hiring knowledgeable legal counsel as a crucial prerequisite to a site assessment and ultimately developing a site.

"First, you have to have a legal team that knows environmental issues," Roth said. "If you don't, you're already out of the ball game."

What about asking law firms for a recommendation? That might not work.

"I don't know if it's a good idea to ask somebody in this business for a recommendation about who is best for the job," Rudig said. "They will always say, 'We are.' "

But when asking a firm about its own record, ask lots of questions, said Paul Zovic, principal of Sigma Environmental in Oak Creek.

"The basis should be experience," he said. "Not just the firm, but the individual doing the work. What kind of person will be doing the work?"

Learn the rules

A good assessor and firm will know the regulatory climate and what happens if contamination is found, Zovic said. A good assessment, he said, will tell a client not only about potential problems, but how regulators are likely to want a site cleaned up.

"It's important for assessors to realize their role," Zovic said. "The goal is not to do an environmental study. The goal is to help a guy buy a piece of property."

One way to judge a firm's work is by asking to see a report on a similar piece of property, Rudig said.

The key in a report, Zovic said, is whether the information gathered is presented in a useful manner that adds value or is merely a "data dump."

Open your wallet

ABOVE ALL DON'T JUST LOOK AT PRICE.

"If you select who you're going to work with based on reputation and quality, and not solely on price, your chances are much better of getting a higher quality product," Rudig said.

Get the right assessment

THERE ARE TWO PHASES OF SITE ASSESSMENTS.

A Phase I assessment is essentially a matter of clerical detective work. The consultant talks to the current and previous owners of the property, digs through property records, finds and reviews any applicable records to determine previous uses for the land and whether trouble lurks underground. Many sites only require a Phase I assessment, if there's no reason to suspect contamination.

"When you talk about a Phase I assessment, there's a misconception that Phase I will give you a clean bill of health," Zovic said. "What a Phase I study is, it's a study that answers: 'Is there a reason to be concerned about the feasibility of this particular site?'"

A consultant who does find cause for concern may recommend a Phase II study. A Phase II assessment involves taking soil samples from various parts of the site to determine the extent of the contamination and the work necessary to clean it up.

Sometimes, the property owner knows " or should know " that a Phase II study is necessary and skips the first phase. Again, Zovic says, it goes back to being an educated client.

"If you know that a retail store was formerly an auto-body shop, just from that bit of information, you should know that you'll need to do a Phase II study, Rudig said.

Once the consulting firm is selected, a property owner can't just sit back and wait for the results.

"Keep involved," Schultz said. "You have to be a bit of a pest, but you need to get that personal relationship with the person who is conducting the assessment of a site you want to develop."

In the case of the King Drive Commerce Center, the studies indeed found contamination that needed remediation work.

"There was free-floating petroleum product," said King Drive Executive Director Randy Roth. "Someone must have been dumping petroleum product down the drain."

This, in addition to removing underground fuel storage tanks from beneath the 22,000-square foot building, were the key aspects to the remediation. Cleaning up all the petroleum and removing the storage tanks cost about $60,000, while cleaning lead paint and asbestos added about another $20,000.

In building the commerce center, the site assessment gave the crucial information about what work was needed and how much it was going to cost.

"You have to see the process of environmental remediation as one more step in a project," Roth said. "You just have to see it as one more step in getting a project developed."