§137.25. Qualifications of the environmental professional. — Inbound Citations

(b) Abandoned property means a property that, because of its general disrepair or lack of activity, a reasonable person could believe that there is an intent on the part of the current owners to surrender their rights to the property.

Adjoining property means real property the border of which is shared in part or in whole with that of the subject property or that would be shared in part or in whole with that of the property but for a street, road, or other public thoroughfare separating the properties.

Data gap means a lack of, or inability to, obtain information required by subpart B of this part despite good faith efforts by the environmental professional or persons specified in § 137.1(a), as appropriate, to gather the information under § 137.33.

Environmental professional means an individual who meets the requirements of § 137.25.

Facility means any structure, group of structures, equipment, or device (other than a vessel) which is used for one or more of the following purposes: exploring for, drilling for, producing, storing, handling, transferring, processing, or transporting oil. This term includes any motor vehicle, rolling stock, or pipeline used for one or more of these purposes.

Good faith means the absence of any intention to seek an unfair advantage or to defraud another party; an honest and sincere intention to fulfill one's obligations in the conduct or transaction concerned.

Institutional controls means non-engineered instruments, such as administrative and/or legal controls, that help to minimize the potential for human exposure to oil discharge and/or protect the integrity of a removal action.

Relevant experience means participation in the performance of all-appropriate-inquiries investigations, environmental site assessments, or other site investigations that may include environmental analyses, investigations, and remediation which involve the understanding of surface and subsurface environmental conditions and the processes used to evaluate these conditions and for which professional judgment was used to develop opinions regarding conditions indicative of the presence or likely presence of oil at the facility and the real property on which the facility is located.

(d) The environmental professional must place the following statements in the written document identified in paragraph (c) of this section and sign the document: “[I, We] declare that, to the best of [my, our] professional knowledge, [I, we] meet the requirements under 33 CFR 137.25 for an environmental professional.” and “[I, We] have the specific qualifications based on education, training, and experience to assess the nature, history, and setting of a facility and the real property on which it is located. [I, We] have developed and conducted all appropriate inquiries according to the standards and practices in 33 CFR part 137.”