Phase I
CSA Z768-01
- Historical records review
- Site visit
- Interviews
- Areas of potential concern, no sampling
Phase 1 environmental site assessment: what the report contains, and what it is called in French.
A Phase 1 environmental site assessment reviews a property's records, visits the site and interviews people who know it, to find actual or potential contamination without sampling. In Canada the reference standard is CSA Z768-01. In French the report is an évaluation environnementale de site (ÉES) or, in Quebec, an étude de caractérisation de phase I.
What is a Phase 1 environmental site assessment (ESA)?
A Phase 1 environmental site assessment is the study read to decide whether a property may be contaminated, often before it changes hands, is financed or is built on. In a bilingual file, that decision rests on two versions of one report, and they must say the same thing.
A Phase I ESA looks for actual or potential contamination from what can be learned without sampling: the property’s history in records, aerial photographs and fire insurance plans, a site visit, and interviews with people who know the property. The output is a Phase I environmental site assessment report, and its sections follow a predictable order.
What does a Phase I ESA report contain?
Quebec’s environment ministry publishes the most explicit list we have read. Its control table for a Phase I study, filled in and signed by the professional who signed the study, runs section by section through what the report must hold:
#SectionFrench heading
- RSummary and conceptual site modelRésumé de l'étude et modèle conceptuel
- 1Introduction: mandate, objectives, what triggered the studyIntroduction : mandat, objectifs, contexte de réalisation
- 2Site and property descriptionDescription du terrain et de la propriété
- 3Geology and hydrogeologyGéologie et hydrogéologie
- 4Ecological descriptionDescription écologique
- 5Historical records reviewRecherche documentaire (historique)
- 6Previous characterization studiesÉtudes de caractérisation antérieures
- 7Site visitsVisites de terrain
- 8InterviewsEntrevues
- 9Interpretation and conceptual site modelInterprétation et modèle conceptuel
- 10Conclusion and recommendationsConclusion et recommandations
- SSignature: professional order or ISO 17024 certificationSignature : ordre professionnel ou agrément ISO 17024
- AAppendices: maps, figures, site and aerial photographs, historical plan, previous studiesAnnexes : cartes, figures, photographies du terrain et aériennes, plan historique, études antérieures
The ministry's Phase I control table: in French, filled in and signed by the professional who signed the study, attached when the study goes to the ministry.
The historical records review lists the activities on the site from its natural state to today and the contaminants each one could have left. The interpretation names every area of potential concern with its source (spills, tank leaks, transfers, equipment), the contaminants it could release and what they could reach: soil, groundwater and other media. The conclusion and recommendations say what comes next, often a Phase II.
Phase I and II environmental site assessments: what changes in the report?
Phase II
CSA Z769-00
- Test pits and boreholes
- Soil, groundwater, surface water or sediment samples
- Accredited laboratory results against criteria
- Limits of the contaminated zones
The Phase II environmental site assessment samples. Phase I follows CSA Z768-01 and Phase II CSA Z769-00, the two standards the City of Calgary’s terms of reference are derived from. The ministry’s Phase II-III control table shows what the report adds: the sampling plan for soil, groundwater, surface water or sediments, the method (test pit or borehole), the borehole logs, the monitoring wells, the accredited laboratory and its quality control, the chemical results against the applicable criteria, and the limits of the contaminated zones.
For a translation, the Phase II environmental site assessment report is a different document. Its conclusions rest on numbers: which sample exceeded which criterion, and where. Since June 1, 2024, Quebec requires the field work of phases II, III and beyond, and the research for a Phase I study, to follow the ministry’s current characterization guide. One study can cover both the Phase I and Phase II environmental site assessments; the professional then fills in both control tables.
What is a Phase I ESA called in French?
Two names, and the right one depends on where the report goes:
One study, two French names
Consultants and federal files
Évaluation environnementale de site (ÉES), phase I is the name environmental consultants in Quebec use for their reports. The National Master Specification translation memory we work from renders “Environmental Site Assessments (ESA)” as évaluation environnementale du site (EES).
Quebec's environment ministry
Étude de caractérisation de phase I is the term of Quebec’s environment ministry. Its control table is titled Étude de caractérisation de terrain de phase I, and the professional checks the study against the ministry’s Guide de caractérisation des terrains, under sections 31.66 and 31.67 of the Environment Quality Act.
A Phase II is then an ÉES de phase II or an étude de caractérisation de phase II. Pick one per report and keep it: a study that calls itself an ÉES on the cover and an étude de caractérisation in its conclusion reads as two documents.
Which parts of the report must read the same in English and French?
The parts someone signs, prices or acts on. A study submitted to Quebec’s environment ministry must be in French, so an English report needs a French version before it goes. The ministry publishes its guide and its control tables in French, and the professional checks a Quebec study against them section by section. Whichever language the report was written in, these must match exactly in the other:
- 01The summary and the conceptual site model, because many readers stop there.
- 02The areas of potential concern, each with the same number, name and boundary in the text, the table and the figure.
- 03The contaminants of concern, named the same way in the history, the interpretation and the laboratory tables.
- 04The comparison with criteria, with the same criteria named the same way throughout.
- 05The conclusion and recommendations, word for word: whether a Phase II is needed is what the client reads the report for.
If the two versions disagree on the recommendation, the lender and the ministry are reading different conclusions. The appendices follow the same rule: when a figure labels a zone differently from the text, or a borehole log stays in the other language, a reviewer has to ask which version governs. This describes the rules as we apply them in November 2026; it is not legal advice.
How do we translate an environmental site assessment report?
We have translated contaminated-site documents for federal sites: soil management plans and environmental quality reports for defence sites, hazardous materials reports in a decommissioning specification, sediment sampling and seabed remediation for a wharf removal.
We work from one term base per project, so the summary, the tables, the figures and the drawings say the same thing, and the French name of the study stays the one chosen on the cover. Environmental terms come from the client’s past reports when there are any, and from the National Master Specification translation memory for the specification sections that often follow an assessment. Drawings and figures in AutoCAD come back as DWG with the same labels as the text.
When the assessment is part of a larger approval, our post on environmental impact assessment in Canada sets out which impact assessment documents must be in English and French, and our environmental translation page covers the environmental monitoring reports that follow a project. To see where your own past reports disagree with themselves, send one to the free terminology check.
Common questions
What is a Phase 1 environmental site assessment in French?
Évaluation environnementale de site (ÉES), phase I, the name Quebec consultants use. Quebec’s environment ministry calls the same study an étude de caractérisation de phase I.
What is the difference between a Phase 1 and a Phase 2 environmental site assessment?
A Phase 1 ESA reviews records, visits the site and interviews people who know it, without sampling; the Phase 1 ESA report sets out what that review found. A Phase 2 takes soil, groundwater, surface water or sediment samples where the Phase 1 found areas of potential concern, and the Phase 2 ESA report compares the laboratory results with the applicable criteria.
What is a Phase 3 environmental site assessment?
In Quebec, a Phase III study follows the Phase II under the same ministry control table: it summarizes the work of Phases I and II, describes the work planned in Phase III and updates the conceptual site model.
Which standard applies to a Phase 1 ESA in Canada?
The reference standard is CSA Z768-01, Phase I environmental site assessment, and CSA Z769-00 for the Phase II. In Quebec, the professional also checks a characterization study against the ministry’s Guide de caractérisation des terrains.
What is a phase one environmental report?
Usually the Phase I environmental site assessment report, the written result of the assessment: the records review, the site visit, the interviews, and the conclusions on actual or potential contamination.
Can you translate an ESA report from French to English?
Yes. The term base holds each term in both languages, so it applies in either direction: a Quebec étude de caractérisation into English for a lender, or an English report into French for the ministry.
Start
DirectRequest a quoteYour engineers review the translation in the terms they approved.
Send your package: specs, drawings or reports. We reply with a price and a date.
FreeFree terminology checkUpload a recent translated deliverable. We return a short report of every inconsistent term.