Building on Formerly Uninhabited Land

[Chris_Sows_32]

If a county were for example, to allow permitting of a site for construction, what would the implications be that it passes an environmental check and when construction begins, hazardous materials are found within the site? Given that many extensive quality checks are conducted beforehand, would an issue like that affect more or less a department’s ability to handle RTIs or would it be dismissed as a one off? I’ve heard of a situation similar occur in Washington (can’t find the article) and nothing changed however, it did end up somehow loosening the department’s RTI process.

 

[W3 Planning and Research]

So environmental laws are different across the country. I can speak for Washington and almost all development must have an extensive environmental review, but they are looking more at the biology aspect of the environment (flora / fauna). Permit's can't be issued until that review is done. The do look at a Phase 1 or 2, but those usually aren't an issue and any problems are addressed very early in the development process.

Most states however have requirements that if environmental or archeological issues are encountered, that all construction must immediately stop pending notification of authorities. It isn't talked about much, but there are a lot of instances every year where unknown graves or fossils are encountered during construction. In Arizona, if you find a grave, you must immediately stop and involve the State of Arizona Historic Preservation to properly document the remains and remove them.

I can only think of one instance where something hazardous was found on a construction site during construction. That was a gas tank, where every single official record indicated that the tanks had been removed 50+ years ago, but the contract found it within minutes of starting his work. In this case, he called us, and we got in tough with the State DEQ which had a program specifically for abating these old unknown tanks. Now this was a project that had already passed phase 1 and 2's with flying colors, hadn't been a gas station since World War 2, was used as a family home for decades. There was zero expectation it would be there. Thankfully the state came out, did their inspection, it was rendered safe (it still had gas in it), and the state paid for the abatement. The contractor ended up with a 2 week delay from grading work, but I allowed the other work to continue forward in other areas of the site so it didn't cost any time.

Kind of a long answer, but finding things after permits have been issued is exceedingly rare. I think in my career, I have overseen 50,000 permits at least and other than unknown graves and the one gas tank, that is all I have ever run into.

Now code enforcement running into dangerous things, that is a whole different story for another day!

 

[Mondo]

Wouldn't it depend on the hazard and perhaps the amount that is found? Different hazards trigger different laws. It could become overwhelming pretty quickly. Good luck to whoever is dealing with that.

 

[W3 Planning and Research]

Wouldn't it depend on the hazard and perhaps the amount that is found? Different hazards trigger different laws. It could become overwhelming pretty quickly. Good luck to whoever is dealing with that.

It definetely does. a small gas tank, isn't a huge deal, especially if they aren't leaking. One hundred buried 55 gallon drums of toxic waste, would be another story. Thankfully, I haven't run across that one yet!