ASTM

American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) Timelines

American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM)

American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) is an international standards organization that develops and publishes voluntary consensus technical standards for a wide range of materials, products, systems, and services. The environmental standard for the past 30 years uses E1527 with the following two numbers representing the year the standard was revised. The first version of the phase one environmental standard was  E1527-93

ASTM E1527-00 Millennium Standard

The ASTM 1527 Committee issued the 00 (Millennium Standard) was issued in 2000 and nearly 25 years since its initial release.  The 00 standard introduced the opinion section of a Phase I ESA as well as the required qualifications of people performing phase one studies. This standard can was utilized by entities that did not need to rely on the protections offered by the 1527-05 All Appropriate Inquiry (AAI) rule.

ASTM E1527-05 All Appropriate Inquiry (AAI) rule

On November 1, 2006 the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) signed into law the All Appropriate Inquiry (AAI) rule designed to hold potential purchasers of real estate to a higher threshold of due diligence. The AAI compliant report is required by regulators when petitioning for assistance under the current available CERCLIS or Brownfield’s programs.

The ASTM E1527-05 standard had a direct correlation to the AAI rule in which the Federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) determined meets the definition of AAI.

In October of 2015 the ASTM E1527-05 standard was phased out and no longer recognized as meeting the AAI definition.

ASTM E1527-13 Standard

On November 6, 2013, ASTM released the 1527-13 standard which was designed to be a clarification of the E1527-05 AAI rule.  The revised standard has three (3) significant areas for consultants to be aware of. The Federal EPA determined on December 30, 2013, that this standard meets the definition of the AAI rule.

ASTM E1527-21 Standard

On February 23, 2024, the ASTM E1527-21 Standard sunset the previous standard and is currently the sole standard effective in meeting the AAI requirement. This standard includes new definitions, clarifications for terms along with the addition of a section for emerging contaminants. Furthermore, in addition to clarifying required historical sources, the ASTM E1527-21 Standard expanded the scope of required historical research to include both the subject property and its adjoining properties.

MECC was part of the committee that adopted the most recent version of the ASTM standard.

For more information on the current ASTM E1527-21 standard, click the following link https://www.astm.org/e1527-21.html