11. MANAGE WASTE PROBLEMS PROACTIVELY

More contaminated sites will be discovered daily, as buyers, banks, brokers, and property managers become more sophisticated, as chemical testing improves, and as government reporting obligations increase. It will be no surprise that these new sites are the land and buildings involved in typical commercial transactions, construction of new buildings, and municipal projects.

Part of proactive waste management is to anticipate these discoveries. Contamination problems do not "get better" by failing to notice them. Land values do not increase by leaving the contamination there.

We recommend recruiting a qualified engineering or environmental science firm to conduct site assessments on real estate, and environmental audits on ongoing operations. Rather than lurching from crisis-to-crisis, examine your present properties for waste problems. While you are at it, you might as well look for asbestos, PCBs, radon, LUST, lead paint, and ureaformaldehyde foam insulation, UFFI, and other problems. Then you can plan your physical and financial program to address the problems without being under the pressure of deadlines for real estate transactions, government cleanup orders, lenders and investors withholding funds, and litigation by plaintiffs seeking monetary damages.