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01/27/1998 15:12 5124841903 GARY MCLEAN INC PAGE 03 the soil behind the store, there is no way of determining when the contamination occurred, or who it came from- unless soli testing has been done prior to purchase. Data GatheriJt& You should research t.he p'roperty t~at y~~ a~e thinking of purchasing. It would be prudent to look at property re- :ords, regulatory permits (i.e., ErA IdentifIcatIon numbers, hazardous waste manifests, etc.). You should also review past and c':!rrent a7tivities at your site and a~jacent sitel5 with respect to hazardous waste treatment, storag.:>, and dis- posal practices. thiS would also be the best time to research past owners and operators of the site and interview them on past activities. interviewing site owners or operators of adjacent sites may also prove helpful. Ched: for Und.erground StODSC Tanks You would be surprised at the number of seIJers who are completely unaware that they may have underground storage tanks (USTs) on their l5ite. This is especialJy true for older plants that have had multiple owners/operators 3nd at some point and have converted their plants from petroleum to pere. This, however, may be l50mewhat diffi. :ult to do without taking a soH sample to looK for petroleum and only then providin~ that the tank is leaking. Another method would be to look at old plant records for documentation of a tank s exi5tence. Finally, you may want to Jook at piping on the floor or outside the plant which may have served as a vent or fill line at one time but may have been fined or capped when the tank was no longer in use. Adfacent StOrtI If at all possible, you should avoid buying or putting a new plant direl;tly adjacent to restaurants, food stores, pet stores, ice cream/yogurt stores, beauty shops, etc. IFf receives many calls from drycleaners who have had adjacent tenants complaining of odor. Many times these odors actually come from other sources such as auto exhaust fumes, boilers, or fumes from beauty shops which are mistakenly thougM to be drycleaning solvent. Tht!se complaints may lead to OSHA inspections and a generally unattractive situation for the dryc1eaner. Uvfns Space. SItuations where there are living spaces Immediately above, next to, or behind a plant-6uch as where there are apartments over a drydeaning plant.should absolutely be avoided. We have already seen where a drydea.ning plant was dosed as a result of complaints from tenants living above the I'lanl This 15 also one of the major proD- lems being faM in Europe where a large number of plants are situated above or next to living spaCe6. Currently, there are no standa.rds for living spaces and. therefure, the possibility of a plant closing as a result of a complaint from someone living next to or above the plant is great. Common Walls Any common walls with an adjacent business should be tightly sealed at the underside of ~he roof, and at the floor. Suspended ceilings are very popular in shopping centers because of their low cost and ease of construction. Often, how- ever, the walls between the adjacent stores are not completely sealed at the underside of the roof. perc vapors from a nor- mal operation can accumulate in this spact! and then travelmto another store. Sometimes, even though the wall joins the roof !fne, the caulking or sealing compound maybe either loose or missing. This maybe a problem, particularly with Cor- rugated roofs. Again, accumulated pere vapors have the opportunity to move to another area. Vapor Exhausts Great care should be taken with exhausts to ensure that they are not in prodmity to air intakes for adjacent stores. There are several possible problem areas in the ventilation system. Ventilation ducts and intakes maYbe located in vari. au! place5, such a5 on the roof or on the back wall of the bullding, but basically the problem occurs because the intake is located too dose to th@ exhaust duct. Th@}' should be at least 20 feet apart. Some buildings have two systems, one for cooling and one for heating. In these cases there maybe a problem only during one season and not another. The exhaust duct from a vapor adsorber is a pot@ntial source of trouble. II the adsorber is not stripped frequently enough it will become overloaded and exhaust pere vapors to the outside. You can chock for this on a periodk basis by drilling a small hole in the exhau.s~ duct and using a halide torch or detector to check. After checking the exhaust, plug die hole with a small cork or stopper Or cover it with strips of duct tape. Btsement Locations Basement locations should always be avolded-and are often prohibited by code requirements. Summary This bulletin by no means covers all the P?tential e~vlro.nmental problems ~at ca.n exist. ~owever, you should have a greater understanding on how to avoId potential pitfalls when purchasing a drydeamng plant In the future. This bulletin was written by Jon Meijer, IFI Legislative/Joint State Liaison. rriMIId 'in ... ",iii' s..w. AD. d.. ...,.,.... No pm ~ tA.. --GIk .....Y '- ..~ l. Mf '(ftft Of ~ ctr:arank: or ..~ _ant 1DC:htd.lnl WCllTD.ICLO., ..... dd ..1ItIc",., ."....m. ..- ,....- - .... ~, 10/90 RL-& .,. ---.. .