The California EPA (CalEPA) has issued draft Vapor Intrusion (VI) Guidance that will put a halt to real estate investment and development in California communities. On February 14, 2020, the VI Guidance was issued, and it’s worse than previously imagined. The CalEPA VI Guidance gives no consideration to impacts on real estate development projects and the effects on blighted communities, nor does it use scientifically defensible criteria.
Let CalEPA know you are concerned. Tell CalEPA they should cease implementation of the VI Guidance Document until California-specific data are developed and after municipalities have effectively addressed COVID-19 priorities. Email CalEPA here before the current comment deadline of June 1, 2020: [email protected]
Here are brief highlights of the daunting challenges cities will be facing:
1. The CalEPA Vapor Intrusion (VI) Guidance results in unreasonably low soil and ground water cleanup levels compared to current practices (which are already some of the strictest in the nation), thereby making commercial and residential development costs prohibitive in your city.
2. There is no current public health crisis prompting this proposed VI Guidance.
3. The new VI Guidance is based on empirical US EPA data from only six (6) locations throughout the State. Nonetheless, CalEPA has begun enforcing new standards while VI research continues.
4. Contaminated sites can no longer be cleaned up to make way for housing or commercial development.
5. The absence of No Further Action letters will thwart financing for thousands of projects.
6. CalEPA’s VI Guidance is exacerbating blight and the housing crisis in our communities as developers are unable to buy, finance, and insure sites in the absence of No Further Action letters.
Please contact me (562-618-0037, [email protected], or https://www.winefieldinc.com/vi-blog) or Google “CalEPA Vapor Intrusion Guidance” for further information.
Matt Winefield, MS, MBA, PE
Winefield & Associates, Inc. - Contaminated Property Acquisitions (www.winefieldinc.com)
Hyperion Fund, LP - Industrial Real Estate Investments (www.hyperionfund.com)
(c) 562-618-0037 (o) 562-856-7996 [email protected]