Affected Property Assessment Report (APAR)

An Affected Property Assessment Report, or APAR, is a Texas document. The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality requires one under the Texas Risk Reduction Program, found at 30 TAC Chapter 350, once a release of a chemical of concern has been confirmed on a property. The APAR maps the contamination, compares it to the state's protective concentration levels, and sets up the response action that follows. Buyers of Texas commercial property run into APARs in two ways: a Phase 1 ESA turns one up in the TCEQ file for the property or a neighbor, or a Phase 2 ESA confirms a release and the buyer or seller has to file one.

Where the APAR Sits in the Texas Process

Texas handles contaminated property through the Texas Risk Reduction Program, which most people in the industry call TRRP. The program applies to releases handled by the TCEQ Remediation Division, the Voluntary Cleanup Program, the Innocent Owner/Operator Program, industrial and hazardous waste corrective action, and, with some differences, petroleum storage tank cases.

The sequence runs like this. Someone confirms a release, through a Phase 2, a tank removal, a spill, or a regulatory inspection. The responsible person files a notice with TCEQ. An affected property assessment follows, and its report, the APAR, defines the problem. If the concentrations exceed the protective concentration levels, a Response Action Plan describes the cleanup, the cleanup happens, and a Response Action Completion Report closes it out. If the APAR shows concentrations below the levels that apply, the case can close without a cleanup.

A Phase 1 and a Phase 2 are due diligence tools that a buyer orders for a transaction. An APAR is a regulatory filing. The two paths meet when Phase 2 sampling finds a release, because at that point the data has to go to the state and the APAR is the form it takes.

What an APAR Contains

TRRP spells out the contents, and a consultant working in Texas follows that outline closely.

• Site history and release description. How the release happened, what chemicals of concern are involved, and what the property and its neighbors have been used for.
• Delineation. The lateral and vertical extent of each chemical of concern in soil and groundwater, defined by sampling until the concentrations fall below the protective concentration levels. Delineation is what separates an APAR from a Phase 2, which stops once the presence of contamination is confirmed.
• Groundwater classification. Texas classifies groundwater by yield and quality into three classes, and the class controls how strict the cleanup levels are. The APAR documents the classification with well data and pump tests where needed.
• Protective concentration levels. A comparison of every result to the applicable Tier 1 levels, or to site-specific Tier 2 or Tier 3 levels if the consultant develops them. Residential and commercial levels differ, and the land use assumption drives the outcome.
• Exposure pathways and receptors. Where people, wells, surface water, and utilities sit relative to the contamination.
• Conclusions and the proposed path forward. Whether a response action is needed and, if so, whether the consultant recommends Remedy Standard A, which removes the contamination to the applicable levels, or Remedy Standard B, which allows contamination to remain in place with controls.

Who Prepares and Signs It

An environmental consultant prepares the APAR. Texas requires reports submitted under TRRP to be sealed by a licensed Professional Engineer or Professional Geoscientist, so the firm has to have one on staff or under contract. The person responsible for the release submits the report. On a transaction, that is the seller in most cases, though a buyer who has entered the Voluntary Cleanup Program can submit it as the applicant.

Firms that write Phase 1 and Phase 2 reports in Texas write APARs too, and hiring the same firm for both keeps the sampling consistent. Ask up front whether the Phase 2 sampling plan is being designed so the data can be reused in an APAR, since a Phase 2 with only a few borings may need to be expanded before it can support delineation.

Timeline

An APAR takes longer than a Phase 2 because delineation means going back to the field until the edges of the contamination are found. A simple petroleum release from one tank can be delineated in one or two rounds of sampling over two to three months. A solvent plume that has moved off the property can take a year of quarterly monitoring before the report is ready. TCEQ review adds time after submittal, and the agency can ask for more data.

Buyers with a closing deadline should treat an open APAR as a reason to restructure the deal rather than a task to finish before closing. Escrows, price adjustments, and seller obligations that survive closing are the usual tools.

What an APAR Means for a Buyer

When a Phase 1 finds an APAR in the TCEQ records for the property, the report tells the buyer that a release was confirmed and mapped. The questions that follow are about status.

• Has TCEQ accepted the APAR, or is it under review with comments outstanding?
• Which remedy standard was chosen? Remedy Standard B leaves contamination in place and comes with institutional controls recorded on the deed, such as a restrictive covenant that limits the property to commercial use or prohibits groundwater use.
• Is there a Municipal Setting Designation over the property? Cities across Texas have adopted these ordinances to prohibit the use of shallow groundwater for drinking, and an MSD changes which protective concentration levels apply.
• Has the case reached a Response Action Completion Report and a closure letter, or under the Voluntary Cleanup Program, a Certificate of Completion?

A Certificate of Completion from the Voluntary Cleanup Program releases future owners and lenders from liability for the contamination it covers, and it is the document most Texas lenders want to see on a property with a cleanup history. A buyer of property contaminated by a neighbor can use the Innocent Owner/Operator Program to get a certificate stating that the contamination came from off site.

When the APAR appears in a neighbor's file rather than the property's own, the question becomes whether the delineation shows the contamination crossing the property line. The APAR figures answer that directly, and a consultant will pull the report from TCEQ's central file room to check.

APARs and Petroleum Storage Tank Cases

Leaking petroleum storage tank cases follow their own TCEQ rules, and the assessment report in those cases is organized around the tank program's requirements. The concepts match TRRP, with delineation, groundwater classification, and protective concentration levels, and the program has moved most cases onto the TRRP framework. A Phase 1 on a former gas station in Texas will find the tank case number, and the consultant will pull the assessment and closure documents from the TCEQ records.

The Texas Phase 1 ESA page covers the TCEQ databases a consultant searches and the state programs that protect a buyer.

Get Texas ESA Quotes

ESAquotes connects buyers, lenders, and attorneys with environmental professionals who write Phase 1 ESAs, Phase 2 ESAs, and TRRP reports across Texas. Submit the property address and firms that cover it will send pricing and turnaround times.