Drafting brownfields agreements manually requires extensive research across EPA guidelines, CERCLA provisions, state regulations, and liability protection frameworks. Environmental attorneys spend hours cross-referencing technical definitions, verifying compliance standards, and ensuring proper indemnification language—all while managing complex multi-party negotiations and site-specific remediation requirements.
Brownfields agreements require intricate knowledge of CERCLA liability protections, state voluntary cleanup programs, and complex environmental remediation terms. Manually drafting these agreements demands extensive research across federal regulations, EPA guidance, site assessments, and state-specific requirements, often taking 12+ hours per transaction. Missing critical liability protections or remediation provisions can expose clients to millions in environmental cleanup costs.
CaseMark analyzes your Phase I/II ESAs, regulatory documents, and property records to automatically draft comprehensive Brownfields Agreements with proper CERCLA liability allocations, remediation specifications, and institutional controls. Our AI ensures compliance with federal and state requirements while incorporating site-specific contamination data and party-specific protections, reducing drafting time from days to minutes.
This workflow is applicable across multiple practice areas and use cases
Commercial real estate transactions involving contaminated or potentially contaminated properties require brownfields agreements to allocate environmental liabilities between buyers and sellers.
Brownfields agreements are essential transactional documents in commercial real estate deals where environmental contamination is present, protecting parties and enabling property transfers that would otherwise be too risky.
Asset purchase agreements involving real property with environmental contamination require brownfields agreements to define liability allocation, remediation responsibilities, and bona fide prospective purchaser protections.
Buyers acquiring contaminated assets need brownfields agreements to secure liability protections under CERCLA while sellers need clear contractual terms limiting post-sale environmental obligations.
M&A transactions involving companies with contaminated property holdings require brownfields agreements to address environmental liabilities and ensure CERCLA compliance during asset or stock acquisitions.
Environmental due diligence in M&A often reveals brownfields issues that must be contractually addressed through specialized agreements allocating cleanup obligations and liability protections between transaction parties.
Corporate counsel managing company-owned properties with environmental contamination use brownfields agreements to structure redevelopment projects and manage ongoing environmental liabilities.
In-house corporate attorneys regularly handle brownfields agreements when companies acquire, divest, or redevelop contaminated properties as part of broader corporate real estate strategies and risk management.
CaseMark automatically incorporates the specific continuing obligations required under CERCLA Section 101(40) for bona fide prospective purchasers, including appropriate care duties, institutional control compliance, cooperation with response actions, and required notices. The platform structures indemnification provisions to complement rather than undermine statutory defenses, ensuring parties don't inadvertently create arranger or transporter liability. All liability allocations are drafted consistent with current EPA guidance and case law interpreting CERCLA liability protections.
Yes, CaseMark incorporates both federal CERCLA requirements and state-specific voluntary cleanup program provisions. The platform researches applicable state brownfields initiatives, cleanup standards, and institutional control mechanisms based on the property location. It integrates state program requirements for work plans, public participation, and regulatory oversight while maintaining compliance with federal All Appropriate Inquiries standards and EPA brownfields grant conditions when applicable.
CaseMark extracts critical information from uploaded Phase I and Phase II Environmental Site Assessments, including specific contaminant types and concentrations, sampling locations, remediation cost estimates, and recommended cleanup approaches. This site-specific data is automatically incorporated into remediation scope provisions, cleanup standards, performance criteria, and cost allocation terms. The platform references specific findings from environmental reports and structures remediation obligations around actual site conditions rather than generic templates.
CaseMark identifies missing critical information during document analysis and flags these gaps for your review before finalizing the agreement. The platform can draft contingent provisions addressing how parties will handle unknown conditions discovered during remediation, including investigation protocols, notification requirements, and cost allocation for addressing newly discovered contamination. This ensures the agreement provides a framework for managing uncertainty while protecting all parties' interests.
Yes, CaseMark drafts comprehensive provisions for institutional controls, engineering controls, and perpetual stewardship obligations. The platform generates specific language for environmental covenants, deed restrictions, and easements based on residual contamination and intended property use. It establishes clear responsibilities for implementing, maintaining, monitoring, and enforcing controls over the long term, including funding mechanisms for perpetual obligations and procedures for transferring stewardship responsibilities to successors.