Environmental Site Assessment Phase 1: Fundamentals, Guidelines, and Regulations - Chapter 8 pot

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Chapter 8
Interviews
Introduction
Unrecorded information concerning the past usage of and activities associ‑
ated with property can be collected only through interviews. People familiar
with the site and surrounding areas may have witnessed, participated in,
or observed that which was never recorded. This may be an observation of
one brief incident, a sequence of events, or a routine. People may be aware of
what they witnessed, or they may not have any idea what actually occurred
or its signicance. Interviewees may have been the participants in an activity
or the eyewitnesses.
You may conduct interviews by phone, or it may require a visit to someone’s
home or a manufacturing facility. Always carry calling cards. Homeowners
are partic
ularly suspicious, and businesses may be difcult to approach as
well. Introduce yourself and explain the purpose of your visit. Be sure to ask
if they mind you taking notes. Some people are intimidated by the process.
Notes are a must, but, in some instances, you may have to complete them
after the fact.
Document the interviewee’s name, relevance to the information being
sought (e.g., retired employee who worked for a business that was located
on the property), and telephone number, as well as the time, date, address or
relative location of the interview (e.g., across the street from the property, at a
neighboring residence), form of communication (e.g., telephone), and details
of the conversation.
Some investigators maintain a form with their standard questions. Once
again, do not be limited by forms and checklists. They cover general infor‑
mation, at best, and can be a distraction. Conjure up a clear picture of the
information that is important, and be prepared to rework the picture as the
interview progresses.

When taking notes, be concise and accurate. Travel the path of a good
reporter—do not interpret intent. Be objective—record what the person says,
not your interpretation.
In closing an interview, leave a calling card. The interviewee will need
a means to contact you, and this should be encouraged. The participant or
witness may recall something relevant after your departure. For instance,
a neighbor may have noticed drums being hauled away from the site on a
routine basis in the middle of the night. Although this is suspicious behav‑
ior, the witness may have perceived it as business as usual. Later, however,
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168 Environmental Site Assessment Phase I
as the witness reconsiders past events based on questions posed during the
interview, he/she may decide the information is relevant. Most people want
to help. Provide a means for them to reach you.
You may need to ask follow‑up questions at a later date. If the interviewee
understands this, future questions are easier to handle, possibly over the
telephone, whereby the parties concerned have been forewarned.
Any of a number of people may be interviewed. At a minimum you should
attempt to interview the present owner and a couple of impartial, unbiased
people associated with the property and surrounding area (e.g., a neighbor).
The ASTM Standard recommends:
A reasonable attempt should be made to interview the current owner
and occupants regarding the past and present uses of the property.
At an industrial facility, the occupants may be the property manager,
plant supervisor, or head of maintenance. At a residence, a reasonable
attempt should be made to interview as many of the occupants as fea‑
sible, excluding dependent children. In multifamily properties, one
should attempt to interview a minimum of ve current occupants.
A discretionary effort may be made to interview past owners and

occupants.
A discretionary effort may be made to interview neighboring or nearby
property owners or occupants.
The All Appropriate Inquiries Rule mandates a greater effort to interview
than that recommended in the Standard. The Rule mandates:
Interviewing the current owner and occupants of the property
Interviewing the past owner and occupants
Interviewing neighboring or nearby property owners or occupants—if
the subject property is “abandoned”
The objective is to identify “possibilities,” generate ideas, and allow more
speculation than what background search information indicates. The inter‑
viewing process should not be set in concrete. Do not limit these efforts to
that which is mandated or recommended. The Rule mandates interviewing
neighboring or nearby property owners or occupants only if the property
has been abandoned. It would be well advised, however, to do so also if the
occupants are of questionable character or if the land is undeveloped and on‑
site activities are observable by the neighbors. Once again, do not be limited
by minimum requirements.
Owners
Owners should be asked to provide information in the form of documents.
These documents may include, but are not limited to, the following:
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Interviews 169

Environmental site assessment reports
Environmental audits
Environmental permits
Reports of hydrogeologic conditions of areas
Aboveground and underground storage tank registrations
In addition, if commercial/industrial activities have occurred on the prop‑
erty, request access to the following:
Material safety data sheets
Community right‑to‑know plan
Environmental health and safety plans (e.g., spill prevention plan)
Records of previous violations and/or citations for noncompliance with
environmental health and safety regulations
Records of hazardous waste generator activities (e.g., manifests and
annual summaries)
Although the owners are the easiest source of information concerning
prior site usage and building structural records, they are biased and there‑
fore must be considered one of many people to be interviewed. If you suspect
the owner is potentially responsible for questionable and/or illegal activities,
seek corroboration of information from other parties.
Questions, in addition to the request for documentation, should be site
dependent, based on research information gathered and observations made
during a site reconnaissance. Some consultants use a guide or a screening
questionnaire. (See Figure 8.1.)
An owner may not have answers to all of the questions but may be able
to point you in the right direction. Seek names and contact information for
these other parties familiar with the property. For instance, the property
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Figure 8.1 Items to be addressed while interviewing the property owner
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170 Environmental Site Assessment Phase I
may have been leased to a tank cleaning service prior to the present market‑
ing business. The owner is unfamiliar with the process but has the name and
contact information for the former lessee. The lessee should be added to the

list of people to be interviewed.
Present
The present owner may have some historic information on the property, and
thus should be consulted on present activities and previous site usage. This
interview should be conducted prior to and possibly again after the site recon‑
naissance. This information may provide direction for the site reconnaissance
and answer questions generated as a result of the property inspection.
Owners may be helpful in clarifying the rationale for some environmental
ndings. For example, an overgrown building foundation is found on the
property next to a clearing where no vegetation grows. The owner may
know that twenty years ago the structure was used to repackage and ware‑
house herbicides. Although the kind of herbicides may be unknown, you
now have an explanation for the lack of vegetation and can initiate further
investigation.
Past
Previous owners may be difcult to locate. A title search provides a good
start, and the present owner may also know where to locate previous owners.
More often than not, however, the most recent owner is long since gone, and
the others may have either moved or passed away. If the previous owner can‑
not be located, others may be able to provide information concerning his/her
reputation. For example, the previous owner may have committed suicide,
leaving behind a trail of indebtedness and a reputation for shady dealings.
One of his business activities involved hazardous chemicals that were not
generated at the site but may have been dumped on the property. Such situa‑
tions may alert the investigator to possible environmental contamination on
property that may not have appeared to be associated with industrial/com‑
mercial activities that generate hazardous wastes.
Site Residents
Site residents include single‑family or multifamily occupants of the property.
This may include a resident employee (e.g., a security guard who is given a

home on the premises). Residents have a tendency to notice unusual activi‑
ties, odors, and conditions more readily than those using the property for
a business, the visiting owner, or the neighbors. For example, a family has
noticed that their ten‑year‑old son and their small terrier dog, who were the
picture of health prior to moving into their home on the property over a year
ago, have since been listless and frequently ill with u‑like symptoms. They
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Interviews 171
also have noticed a pungent odor occasionally prevails when the wind blows
from the southeast. This is worth further investigation.
Site Personnel
Site personnel, past and present, who have worked on the property in an
industrial/commercial setting should be interviewed. The plant or business
manager should be at the top of the list. Then, attempt to interview some of
the employees.
If the owner is not the operator of the property in such a commercial/
industrial setting, request access to those same documents that would be
requested of the owner (see lists in “Owners” section above) from the person
who is managing these activities on the property.
The plant or business manager will be able to disclose the processes,
chemicals used, and waste management procedures specic to the opera‑
tion. If there is or was an industrial/commercial activity on the property, this
interview is a must. As will be discussed in Chapter 10, on “Industrial/Com‑
mercial Activities,” such information can help the investigator formulate a
general idea about the operations and generated hazardous materials. Each
operation is different, however. Specics and details can be obtained only
from those operating the business and their employees. For example, the
plant manager of a chemical formulating complex will be able to identify
what specic chemicals are being used, how they are managed, and which

means are used for disposal.
The employees are an excellent source of job‑specic details. Sometimes
they are the only ones available to be interviewed,
particularly if the busi
‑
ness is no longer active. For example, a retired maintenance employee for one
industrial complex was consulted for information concerning where he bur‑
ied three 55‑gallon drums of mercury thirty years ago. His response, “Out
under the old oak tree that died ten years ago.”
Local Government Ofcials
Environmental incidents, events, and conditions that are not a matter of
record or have not been recorded by some means other than those previ‑
ously discussed may be disclosed by local ofcials most likely to have been
involved in or to have observed such matters. These ofcials may be associ‑
ated with, but not be limited to, the following:
Local re department
Local health agency (or regional health department)
Local hazardous waste disposal agency (or regional hazardous waste
management ofce)
Local environmental management agency
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172 Environmental Site Assessment Phase I
In‑person interviews tend to involve the interviewee more, and there is
generally greater cooperation and interest. Yet, visitation of each location is
not always practical, nor efcient, and the knowledgeable person may not

be easily reached. In some cases, the knowledg
eable person has retired or
moved. Thus, these interviews are most often conducted by telephone.
Neighbors
Residential neighbors generally notice strange activities on a property and
are more than happy to have someone to tell about their observations. They
may also have noticed normal activities that created a situation for which
there appears no easy investigative tool, other than to interview someone
who knows. For example, an investigator notices on a site visit that there is a
large mound of overgrown dirt on the premises. A neighbor, having lived in
the area for more than twenty years, claries that the mound is nothing more
than the excess soil that resulted when the ground was leveled. No further
investigation is indicated.
In another example, the operator of an automotive repair shop located just
outside of town died of a coronary. The property was leased, and the new
owner had a reputation for being a reclusive, spiteful old man. He never had any
employees who might have known what he did with his waste oil. Although the
neighbors maintained their distance from the man, they had not once observed
waste oil being hauled away. The man had dug his own latrine, and the prop‑
erty is over sensitive groundwater. Further investigation is indicated.
On the other hand, neighboring businesses rarely notice activities on adja‑
cent properties, unless they are blatant. For example, 80% of the occupants
in an ofce building complain of foul odors and eye and respiratory irrita‑
tion on days when the wind is blowing from the north. The property site is
located on the north side of the building, and it houses an industrial activity.
When the building management staff was interviewed, they volunteered the
above information. Further investigation is indicated.
Historians/Local Historical Societies
Most cities and towns have some form of historical records that are main‑
tained by a city librarian, a specially designated historic center, or an agency

already performing other functions (e.g., city pla
nning department). They
generally attempt to collect historic records and information from the local
public. Many of the items or records of historic value have been donated. The
designated responsible person who maintains these records is an invalu‑
able source of information, and this person can oftentimes provide reference
source information as well. For example, a re insurance map indicates a
“lling station” dated 1887. Although cars were being produced at that time,
they were not being manufactured until the early 1910s. The town historian
reviews some old records and discovers that the rst automobile in this city
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Interviews 173
was in 1914. This historic tidbit rules out a gasoline station. The question
remains, “Was the term ‘lling station’ a misprint or was a lling station
in the late 1800s something other than a gasoline station?” Do not assume
terms used in the 1800s have the same meaning as they do today. Further
research may be necessary.
Others
A shot in the dark—anything goes. Now that the obvious sources have been
exhausted, locating an individual familiar with activities on the property
may be futile—unless one of the other interviews result in a name and means
for contacting someone who may be more knowledgeable about activities on
and/or around the property. For example, the present owner says the previ‑
ous owner left town in a hurry. The bank foreclosed on the property, which
was later purchased by the present owner. The loan ofcer is identied and
interviewed. He discloses that the previous owner appeared to be connected
with illegal dumping. Newspaper reporters investigated, but nothing was
found. Yet, he did disappear about the time the local residents began to
get suspicious. This might lead the consultant to interview the newspaper

reporter who investigated the property. And the list goes on.
Summary
Interviews are an important part of the Phase I site assessment. Questions develop
as an assessment nears completion. Keep a list of these questions, and consoli‑
date the list. The minimum interviews to be conducted are the following:
Present owner
Past owners
Site residents
Site personnel
Local government agencies
Additional parties to be interviewed that may provide pertinent informa‑
tion with minimal effort include the following:
Neighbors
Historians or local historical societies
Historians are sometimes more helpful than some of the others, and neigh‑
bors are an important source of unbiased information.
The ultimate purpose is to identify possibilities and potentials for a site
to have become contaminated with hazardous materials, using the last
resource. The interviews should be used as a catchall for information that
may have otherwise slipped through the cracks.
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