EJQ4 - Spring 2025 - Journal - Page 29
whether further intrusive investigation is needed to determine if a site
is contaminated. These reports generally require reviewing publicly
available records and client-provided documentation, conducting site
visits, and interviewing individuals with knowledge of the current and
historic operations at the property.
They are critical in our industry, but Phase 1 ESAs have become somewhat
commoditized, often leading to tight budgets and timelines. They require
attention to detail and are a source of high commercial liability, as missing or misinterpreting records can lead to samples not being collected at
the right locations (or at all) and can lead to a client and/or other stakeholders making decisions on a property without discovering contamination. Such work is often allocated to junior and intermediate sta昀昀 to control costs or limit losses. Many consultants in the industry write Phase 1
ESAs at low cost to get the opportunity to conduct Phase 2 ESA investigations and potential future remediation work with clients. Our environmental team writes over 50 Phase 1 ESAs a year.
One particularly time-consuming aspect of Phase 1 ESAs involves reviewing a raw-data document known as the “Ecolog” report. This document
is provided by a third-party vendor and is a comprehensive list of envi-
ronmental records within 250 m of the site, including spills, industrial
operations, and the presence of fuel storage tanks.
In many urban areas, there can be thousands of pages of records that an
environmental professional must evaluate. The manual review process
is not only time-consuming, but also subject to human error and is constrained by the availability of quali昀椀ed sta昀昀.
Leveraging AI to automate portions of this work provides an opportunity
to improve e昀케ciency, accuracy, and pro昀椀tability while allowing our environmental practitioners to focus their expertise where it matters most.
FIGURE 1: ECOLOG REPORT WITH 700+ RECORDS IN AN URBAN AREA
E N V I RON M E N T J OURN A L QUA RT E RLY RE PORT • S PRI N G 2 0 2 5 • P AGE 2 9
