11-11-16

M id A tlantic Real Estate Journal — Western PA — November 11 - 24, 2016 — 9C

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W estern PA

ain St. splits off from Rte. 50 and runs through the center By Justin R. Lauterbach, RT Environmental Services, Inc. PADEP Act 2 Program continues to facilitate redevelopment after more than 20 years M

Land Recycling Program. The Act 2 Land Recycling and Envi- ronmental Remediation Act of 1995 was put in place to allow property owners to manage contamination onsite and pro- vide incentives for developers to redevelop old contaminated sites while at the same time ensuring that remedial mea- sures would be protective of human health and the environ- ment. The Act 2 Program is a voluntary program that allows a remediator to select a certain set of standards that will be attained for soil and groundwa- ter on a property. Once a site

completes the Act 2 process, the state issues a release of liability and covenant not to sue for all identified contami- nation at a site. This program has led to the redevelopment of thousands of sites across the commonwealth which may not have otherwise been developed, as is the case with this old in- dustrial property in Carnegie. Prior to Giant Eagle’s acqui- sition of the site, RT consulted with PADEP and it was de- termined that contamination and tanks at the site could be addressed through the Act 2 Program. Because the tanks

were closed prior to 1989, they would not be subject to the requirements of PADEP’s Stor- age Tank Program. Historic maps showed the presence of four historical USTs onsite. RT provided Giant Eagle with an estimate for addressing the site through the Act 2 Program, which turned out to be less than 20% of the figures quoted by previous out-of-state consultants, and Giant Eagle elected to move forward with the acquisition of the property. The site was entered into the Act 2 Program, and a Cleanup Plan was submitted

to, and approved by PADEP. However, redevelopment did not come without its challenges and unforeseen environmental issues. Ultimately, a total of 12 USTs would be encountered during redevelopment which required removal. A small amount of grossly impacted soil was also encountered which required removal and offsite disposal. These issues were able to be addressed quickly without causing long delays because the site was in the Act 2 Program. Quarterly ground- water monitoring at the site continued on page 10C

o f d o w n - town Carn- e g i e . T h e storefronts, shops , and other busi- nesses along this stretch of Main St. a f f o r d t h e

Justin Lauterbach

downtown Carnegie area with a true sense of character, and it is a quaint stretch of road that gives off that “small town” feel- ing. A little over 3 years ago, if you were making your way down Main St. from the center of town toward the parkway west, you would have come upon an entire city block occu- pied by an old run down ware- house building with boarded windows, a gravel parking lot with garbage strewn about, and a few run down residential homes that were on the verge of condemnation. The ware- house building was historically utilized as a Buick Dealership and fueling station back in the 1950s until the early 1990s. Several compani es had shown interest in purchas- ing these properties over the years and had begun their due diligence process to assess the environmental condition of the site, but none had ever elected to purchase the site due to the potential environmental is- sues. RT Environmental was retained by Giant Eagle to complete initial due diligence activities in 2012 for the poten- tial development of a Get-Go, and we were provided with sev- eral assessments and reports detailing prior investigations completed at the site on behalf of a few large national corpora- tions. Environmental reports revealed the potential for sev- eral old underground storage tanks (USTs) to be present at the site, and significant concen- trations of petroleum impacted soil and groundwater were also present. Many of the national corpora- tions who previously evaluated the site had hired consultants who were not necessarily fa- miliar with Pennsylvania en- vironmental programs and regulations. In many cases, the consultants evaluating the site had estimated the cleanup cost to be in excess of 2 million dol- lars. There was no indication that these consultants were familiar with PADEP’s Act 2

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