Phase 1 ESA for Dry Cleaners

Dry cleaners produce more solvent contamination per square foot than any other small business. The cleaning fluid used at most shops from the 1950s through the 2000s was perchloroethylene, a chlorinated solvent that sinks through soil, dissolves slowly into groundwater, and gives off vapor that can rise into a building. A Phase 1 Environmental Site Assessment on a property that ever housed a dry cleaner is built around that one chemical.

The property does not need to be a dry cleaner today. A strip center with a cleaner as a tenant in 1978, a freestanding building that changed hands twice since the cleaner left, and a redevelopment lot where the shop was torn down all get the same attention from the consultant.

How Perchloroethylene Behaves in the Ground

Perchloroethylene, called PCE or perc, is heavier than water. A spill that reaches soil keeps moving down until it hits a clay layer or bedrock, and along the way it leaves a trail that feeds groundwater for decades. Gasoline floats on the water table and stays close to where it leaked. PCE does neither. A plume from a shop that closed in 1990 can be a quarter mile long today, and it can pass under homes and offices that never had anything to do with dry cleaning.

The vapor is the part that changes a real estate deal. PCE and its breakdown product trichloroethylene evaporate from contaminated soil and groundwater, collect under a slab, and enter through cracks and utility penetrations. Regulators in most states now require a vapor intrusion evaluation on any building within a set distance of a chlorinated solvent release, and that evaluation has become a standard part of Phase 2 work near a cleaner.

Where the Consultant Looks

The machine location is the first spot. Older transfer machines moved wet clothes by hand from a washer to a separate dryer, and solvent dripped onto the floor with every load. Dry-to-dry machines that replaced them still had a still, a filter housing, and a water separator that discharged to a floor drain or a sewer line. The consultant traces where that drain went, because a cracked sewer lateral under the building is one of the most common release points at a cleaner.

The back door and the loading area come next. Solvent was delivered in drums and later by tanker, and spent filters and still bottoms were stored outside while they waited for pickup. A rear alley behind a former cleaner is a standard boring location in a Phase 2. Inside, the consultant looks at the boiler room, any pit or sump, and the concrete floor around the machine pad for staining and patching.

What the Records Show

Several states run dry cleaner cleanup programs funded by fees on the industry, and the program registries list every shop that enrolled. Florida, Texas, Illinois, North Carolina, Tennessee, and others each keep one. The registry tells the consultant whether the site was ever ranked for state-funded cleanup and whether the state has already investigated it. A shop that never enrolled is a bigger unknown than one that did.

Hazardous waste manifests from the EPA's generator database show how much spent solvent the shop shipped off site and for how many years. A gap in manifests during a period when the shop was open raises the question of where the waste went. City directories and fire insurance maps pin down the years of operation and the machine type, since the maps sometimes label a shop as a cleaner or a laundry.

What the Report Says

A property with a documented dry cleaner in its history gets a REC in most reports, whether or not a release was ever recorded, because the release rate at a typical shop over a typical operating life makes contamination likely. The consultant may report the vapor intrusion pathway as a separate REC when the subject building sits within the state's screening distance of a known solvent plume from a neighbor. A cleaner that used only petroleum solvent or a modern hydrocarbon alternative gets a softer finding, though the consultant will still want to confirm the machine type from records rather than from the seller's memory.

The Phase 2 That Follows

Sampling near a dry cleaner runs in three media. Soil borings go in at the machine location, along the sewer line, and at the rear door. Soil vapor probes go in under or beside the slab, since vapor is the pathway that decides whether people can occupy the building. Groundwater samples come from temporary wells placed downgradient of the shop. All three get analyzed for volatile organic compounds, and the lab report lists PCE along with its breakdown products so the consultant can judge how old the release is. The Phase 2 guide covers the field work in detail.

Screening levels for PCE in soil vapor are low, and an exceedance under an occupied building leads to a mitigation system. A sub-slab depressurization system, which is a fan and a network of pipes under the floor, costs a fraction of a soil cleanup and is the usual answer where the building stays. A redevelopment that includes new construction over the plume gets a vapor barrier and venting layer designed into the foundation.

Lenders, the SBA, and Cost

The SBA lists dry cleaners among the environmentally sensitive uses that need a Phase 1 on every loan, and its rules address cleaners that have been in business for a long time with additional sampling requirements. The SBA environmental requirements guide covers the specifics. Conventional lenders follow the same logic and will want the vapor pathway addressed before funding a loan on an occupied building.

The Phase 1 itself costs a little more than a report on a plain retail building because of the state program file review and the extra attention to the sewer and drain layout. The Phase 2 is where the money goes. Three media of sampling plus a vapor evaluation puts a dry cleaner investigation well above the price of a single-tank petroleum site, and delineating a plume that has left the property is a separate and larger job. The Phase 2 cost guide lays out the ranges.

Reducing the Risk Before Closing

Buyers of a strip center should pull the tenant history from the seller's leases going back as far as the file runs, since a cleaner that left in the 1980s will not appear in current rent rolls. Ask the seller for any state program correspondence, prior sampling, and the shop's hazardous waste generator number. If a cleaner is still operating, ask for the machine type and the current solvent, and walk the shop with the consultant.

Budget the deal with a Phase 2 assumed rather than hoped against, and put the sampling in the due diligence window early. A vapor intrusion finding under an occupied building takes time to resolve and can change the tenant mix, so a buyer wants that information with weeks to spare, not days. Where the state offers a dry cleaner program or a voluntary cleanup track, enrolling before closing can shift cleanup obligations to the state fund or the prior operator. The Phase 1 vs Phase 2 guide explains how the two reports fit together in a transaction timeline.

Get Dry Cleaner ESA Quotes

ESAquotes connects buyers and lenders with environmental professionals who handle chlorinated solvent sites and vapor intrusion work. Submit the property address and receive quotes for Phase 1 and Phase 2 assessments from firms in your area.