Monitoring well

[George Hatch]

If you're inspecting a property and run into these you might want to start asking questions about them. This was a 1950 storefront where one of the tenants was a dry cleaner. There were several of these monitoring stations in the unit and scattered in the parking lot to the side and rear of this unit.

 

[TerryRohrer]

Any public knowledge of the contamination? Here, there is a large area where the plume spread through. After decades, the EPA is about to start cleanup. No apparent impact on prices seen to date.

 

[George Hatch]

I saw those so I checked up on it. Prior contamination from 30 years ago, long cleaned up but they're still watching the property. Possibly because the dry cleaner is still operating onsite.

Unless their plume has spread to other neighboring properties these prior contamination issues normally have no effect on the values or marketability on commercial or industrial properties, but are sometimes a hassle for the financing. This lender might end up rejecting this deal over this issue.

 

[Overimprovement]

I saw those so I checked up on it. Prior contamination from 30 years ago, long cleaned up but they're still watching the property. Possibly because the dry cleaner is still operating onsite.

Unless their plume has spread to other neighboring properties these prior contamination issues normally have no effect on the values or marketability on commercial or industrial properties, but are sometimes a hassle for the financing. This lender might end up rejecting this deal over this issue.

Being a commercial underwriter now, I can say unless there is an NFA letter, most lenders would not lend on this, so I would say that would affect marketability, as most commercial purchases still need financing.

It's not just the lack of being able to claim innocent landowner defense. It's potentially being saddled with a non-financable asset in the event of foreclosure. That would make it a cash sale only, likely at a deep discount given the active monitoring.

 

[Terrel L. Shields]

Dry cleaning chemicals are pretty toxic.

I've got a friend who took a 'temporary' job as a geologist with the EPA. He's been at it for 30 years on 5 year contracts. It involved a radioactive leak site associated with the old Kerr-McGee Oil company aka Sequoyah Fuels. So, Kenny has been chasing down and helping remediate this site ever since they closed in back about 1993. Often these are very long term in terms of trying to "clean up" the site.

Sequoyah Fuels Corporation

Sequoyah Fuels Corporation

www.nrc.gov

 

[bsilver]

Dry cleaning chemicals are particularly toxic, and they tend to plume faster and farther than many other chemical contaminates as they are intended to dissolve and penetrate in order to be tough cleaners.
I was doing a damage appraisal on a multi-million dollar ski area town residence of about 5,000SF. It was a second home, vacant for weeks and months at a stretch. A snow plowing company truck knocked the oil fill spout pipe at the exterior, and the pipe broke off at the tank, in the basement. The fuel company pumped many hundreds of gallons of fuel oil into the basement over two months.
Needless to say there was a problem. Long story short, one thing that did come up was that there are specialized insurance companies that will sell policies to indemnify owners from future damage to neighboring properties due to pluming. It's costly, but in expensive property situations, it can potentially be a cost to cure future risk, depending on a host of factors.

 

[Mark K]

If you're in a commercial area and you notice a small section, usually of the parking lot, enclosed by a privacy fence with a locked gate, you might want to sneak a peek if you're concerned re: contamination nearby.

In a local town there are three such areas, about 15' square. These are EPA funded groundwater cleanup stations for contaminated groundwater, all three gasoline. They were old gas stations and the cleanup stations extract groundwater, distill it, and send it down the storm drain. There are some massive electrical conduits that bring power to them. They've been running for over 20 years.

One is now a CVS, another is a new gas station, and the other is part of the site for an apartment building with commercial on the first floor. All three have relatively innocuous looking walled-off areas in the corner of the parking lot that most people ignore. Hidden in plain sight.

 

[Zoe]

https://www.osha.gov/dry-cleaning/hazards