You’ve asked the internet what the best environmental engineering companies are in Chicago and the internet delivered you to the website of A3 Environmental Consultants. Full disclosure, we’re not environmental engineers, we’re environmental consultants. My first question for you, is do you know the difference? Are you sure you need an environmental engineer? Unless you’re

I know you can hardly contain yourself. The new Small Business Administration (SBA) Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for Record Search With Risk Assessment (RSRA) is OUT!! Download Official RSRA SBA SOP 50 10 6 by clicking here. While you’re waiting, let’s talk about how we can work together. If you’re a lending institution, we can

You’re here because you need a SBA Environmental Reliance Letter. You most likely just had a Phase 1 Environmental Site Assessment done and now you’re submitting it to the Small Business Administration (SBA) for approval. You also work for a bank or other financial lending institution and you don’t do this very much. If you

You’ve asked the google-tubes who the best environmental consulting firms are in Chicago and it delivers you to A3 Environmental Consultants corporate marketing posts. You’re probably thinking, you’re in for some completely biased information. To be clear from the outset, I think A3E is pretty amazing but I’m going to do my best at guiding

An EDR Report is an Environmental Database Report which costs $127 and is completed in 24 hours in most cases. To be fair, “EDR” is also a company which creates these EDR Reports. When A3 Environmental Consultants prepares these reports we use a data provider called ERIS who’s data we believe is better than EDR.

A desktop risk assessment is an environmental database report (EDR) where the scientist who is performing the report doesn’t leave her desk. So much of what we do involves sampling, testing and site visits. It makes the distinction between “desktop” work and “field” work that much more poignant. Desktop risk assessments are done by computer

The average cost of a Phase I Environmental Site Assessment is about $1900 depending on who you call and how involved the site is. That’s what we here at A3 Environmental Consultants charge for most projects. But there’s a lot more to it, so stick with me if you’re interested in learning more. What kind

Due Diligence is a legal contract term which affords the buyer to inspect a property and run appropriate financial modeling to determine if a transaction is worth the price being paid. When purchasing really expensive assets there is a lot of things that are unknown to the buyer while the buyer is still prospective. The

What is a brownfield? It’s an urban or suburban site which had a former use such as housing or a factory. Very often, these sites are diminished in value and sit fallow for years because of real or imagined contamination at the site. There are more brownfield sites than you think. Think of any corner

Here at A3 Environmental Consultants, we’ve found the general public doesn’t know much about what we do and has more than a few preconceived notions. This post is about some of the the things we’ve come across which people frequently didn’t know. Environmental Remediation: Once soil is contaminated, there’s no cleaning it. No matter what

CCDD stands for Clean Construction Demolition Debris. Similarly, USF is an abbreviation for Uncontaminated Soil Fill. Both of these terms refer to a body of laws unique to Illinois whereby clean materials can be put into old gravel, sand or limestone mines. These deposits of materials are an alternative to landfills which are much more

MAC stands for Maximum Allowable Concentration. It refers to the maximum allowable levels of contamination in clean fill (CCDD). CCDD stands for Clean Construction Demolition Debris and is a body of laws from the IEPA (Illinois EPA) that regulate clean fill operations in Illinois. Only the State of Illinois has CCDD regulations so if you’re

The information below represents a EULA, End User License Agreement regarding A3 Environmental Consultants services. This document can be downloaded for your records by clicking here. 1. Estimated Fees Unless the Scope of Work provides otherwise, the Estimated Fees contained therein constitute A3 Environmental’s estimate of the probable cost required to complete the proposed Project.

You’re probably wondering how you’ve lived so long on this planet without ever knowing how Illinois landfill pricing works. Settle down nerd. I’m not going to answer every question you have, just give you a slightly better understanding. This article is designed for regular people, new environmental consultants and trucking companies that haul clean fill,

The following is a guide for regular people regarding CCDD – which stands for Clean Construction Demolition Debris. In this primer, we’re going to take a beat to cover background information you’ll need to keep in mind while reading. I’m making the assumption that you, the reader, is not an engineer or environmental consultant but is in an industry that is touched by these regulations.

As an environmental consultant, we’re frequently asked for advice that veers out of our lane and into what environmental lawyers do best. While I’ve never meet or talked to the good people over at Spencer Fane, they seem to have some pretty good, concise, advice about environmental law. The following is gleaned from their website,

I thought this article was great information that most people in a property transaction never hear about. You can read the whole thing by clicking here. Lenders, borrowers, purchasers, sellers, and even contractors sometimes get annoyed with environmental lawyers when we insist on reviewing Phase I Environmental Site Assessment (ESA) draft reports, looking at the

You have (or think you have) a leaking underground storage tank (UST). Maybe you’re about to buy or sell a property. Either way, you know it’s going to be a problem. The government doesn’t like underground tanks, it especially doesn’t like them leaking and it gets twitchy if the tank isn’t being currently used for

Before we start we should get on the same page about why environmental consultants are hired by commercial lenders to begin with. An Environmental Consultant’s job is to limit downside risk on a commercial loan. Too often lending institutions business practices encourage environmental consultants to raise costs, increase environmental risk, or both. How can this