In 2002, the Small Business Liability Relief and Brownfields Revitalization Act ("the Brownfields Amendments") was signed into law; in part, the Brownfields Amendments revised some of the provisions of CERCLA Section 101(35) and limited Superfund liability under Section 107 for bona fide prospective purchasers and contiguous property owners, in addition to clarifying the requirements necessary to establish the innocent landowner defense under CERCLA. The Brownfields Amendments clarified the requirement that parties purchasing potentially contaminated property undertake "all appropriate inquiry" into prior ownership and use of property prior to purchasing the property in order to qualify for protection from CERCLA liability. Further, the Brownfields Amendments required EPA to develop regulations establishing standards and practices for how to conduct all appropriate inquiries. EPA promulgated regulations that set standards and practices for all appropriate inquiries on November 1, 2005 (70 Fed. Reg. 66,070). In the final regulation, EPA referenced, and recognized as compliant with the final rule, the ASTM "Standard Practice for Environmental Site Assessments: Phase I Environmental Site Assessment Process (E1527-05)." In a final rule published in late December at 73 Fed. Reg. 78,651, EPA permits the use of ASTM E22447-08 for the Phase-1 assessment of forest or rural tracts of land of 120+ acres. The new standard takes effect March 3, 2009 unless EPA receives an adverse comment by January 24, 2009. The new ASTM standard can be purchased at http://store.ihs.com/specsstore/controller;jsessionid=miBqW95u0m9-anPLCXmYeA**.app1?event=DOCUMENT_DETAILS&docId=TMJEGCAAAAAAAAAA. It is important to bear two facts in mind. First, for whatever it is worth, my experience has been that Phase-1 assessments are of little use in ascertaining if property is contaminated. It may suggest that certain relatively recent activities (say, within the last 2-3 decades) have the potential to have caused contamination, but generally such analyses are often worthless in assessing the potential for contamination from earlier activities. One needs to sample soil, surface water, and groundwater to obtain a reasonable assessment, and even these techniques are subject to much hit-and-miss unless one is willing to spend serious money for a statistically valid sampling assessment. Second, this Phase-1 assessment is a defense only to CERCLA liability. It does not prevent legal action based on other possible causes of action under Federal and State law. It is also important to bear in mind that many firms that are "specialists" in Phase-1 reports do a second- or third-rate job, and may put the defense at risk just because their approach is often slap-dash.