scope:

Purpose-The purpose of this practice is to define good commercial and customary practice in the United States of America for conducting a Phase I environmental site assessment² of a property 120 acres or greater of forestland or rural property or with a developed use of only managed forestland and/or agriculture with respect to the range of contaminants within the scope of the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) and petroleum products. The property need not be contiguous; however, the non-contiguous areas should have substantially the same general land use and be part of the same transaction. The property may contain isolated areas of non-forestland and non-rural property. As such, this practice is intended to permit a user to satisfy one of the requirements to qualify for the innocent landowner, contiguous property owner, or bona fide prospective purchaser limitations on CERCLA liability (hereinafter, the "landowner liability protections," or "LLPs"): that is, the practice that constitutes "all appropriate inquiry into the previous ownership and uses of the property consistent with good commercial or customary practice" as defined at 42 U.S.C. §9601(35)(B). (See Appendix X1 for an outline of CERCLA's liability and defense provisions.) Controlled substances are not included within the scope of this standard. Persons conducting an environmental site assessment as part of an EPA Brownfields Assessment and Characterization Grant awarded under CERCLA 42 U.S.C. §9604(k)(2)(B) must include controlled substances as defined in the Controlled Substances Act (21 U.S.C. §802) within the scope of the assessment investigations to the extent directed in the terms and conditions of the specific grant or cooperative agreement.