Environmental Site Assessment Guidelines - Ohio Department of ...

3. PLANNING, PRODUCTION AND REAL ESTATE ACQUISITION
In the past, ODOT has purchased contaminated properties at the full market value while assuming all
of a property's liability and cost of remediation. There have been instances where the amount of ROW
acquired for a property has been greatly increased after the NEPA document is approved because of
rules that Real Estate must adhere to during real estate negotiations. Some of these acquisitions have
occurred without the knowledge of the District Environmental Coordinator (DEC) or Environmental
Services and have caused change orders during the project's construction when the contractor
encounters contaminated materials not addressed in the plans. In order to encourage dialog between
Planning and Real Estate, a new procedure has been developed for the acquisition of contaminated
properties. This policy is also presented in Real Estate's Special Acquisitions Procedures, 5320, The
Acquisition of Contaminated Property, January 16, 2001 (see Appendix B).
There are two (2) methods to initiate this dialog. The first method involves the DEC notifying the
District Real Estate Administrator (DREA) and the Real Estate Regional Project Manager (RPM)
during the NEPA process that a property has contamination. Once the DREA is notified of the
contamination, they will arrange a meeting to discuss the issues of acquiring the property. This
method should be used when it is known that a contaminated property will be acquired in its entirety
(i.e. gas station, dry cleaning facility) or the site is highly regulated (i.e. Superfund site, RCRA large
quantity generator). The DEC shall memorialize the meeting detailing the relevant issues and
distribute them to the DREA and the RPM.
The second method should be the one used for most projects. After the approval of the NEPA
document, the District Environmental Coordinator shall write an Inter-Office Communication(IOC) to
the DREA and copy the RPM. The IOC should detail the properties that are contaminated, if the
environmental site assessment studies were conducted based on a strip acquisition or acquisition of
the entire property, and if a property would require additional environmental site assessment
investigation of the entire property (i.e. gas stations, dry cleaning facilities). For example, if an
operating gas station had a Phase II ESA conducted for strip acquisition, the results would be
evaluated for waste management only since none of the source areas (i.e, USTs, pump island) would
be acquired. However, if during real estate negotiations, the operating gas station is then completely
acquired, the original Phase II ESA does not address the liability issues associated with acquiring the
entire property. An additional Phase II ESA would need to be completed and a potential reduction of
the property price may be required if ODOT must address the contamination on the property.
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