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. Environmental Data Resources, Inc.
<br /> Historical Topographic Map Report
<br /> Environmental Data Resources, Inc 's (EDR) Historical Topographic Map Report is designed to assist
<br /> professionals in evaluating potential liability on a target property, and its surrounding area, resulting from
<br /> past activities ASTM E 1527-00, Section 7 3 on Historical Use Information, identifies the prior use
<br /> requirements for a Phase I environmental site assessment The ASTM standard requires a review of
<br /> reasonably ascertainable standard historical sources Reasonably ascertainable is defined as
<br /> information that is publicly available, obtainable from a source with reavonable time and cost
<br /> constraints, and practically reviewable
<br /> To meet the prior use requirements of ASTM E 1527-00, Section 7 3 4, the following standard historical
<br /> sources may be used aerial photographs, city directories, fire insurance traps, topograplue maps, property
<br /> tax files, land title records (although these cannot be the sole historical source consulted), building
<br /> department records, or zoning/and use records ASTM E 1527-00 requires "All obvious uses of the
<br /> property shall be identified from the present, back to the property's obvious first developed use, or back
<br /> to 1940, whichever is earlier This task requires reviewing only as many of the standard historical
<br /> sources as are necessary, and that are reasonably ascertainable and likely to be useful " (ASTM E
<br /> 1527-00, Section 7 3 2 page 12 )
<br /> EDR's Historical Topographic Map Report includes a search of available public and private color
<br /> historical topograplue reap collections
<br /> Topographic Maps
<br /> A topographic map (topo) is a color coded line-and-symbol representation of natural and selected artificial
<br /> features plotted to a scale Topos show the shape, elevation, and development of the terram in precise
<br /> detail by using contour Imes and color coded symbols Many features are shown by Innes that may be
<br /> straight, curved, solid, dashed, dotted, or in any combination The colors of the hnes usually indicate
<br /> similar classes of mformation For example, topographic contours (brown), lakes, streams, irrigation
<br /> ditches, etc (blue), land grids and important roads (red), secondary roads and trails, railroads, boundaries,
<br /> etc (black), and features that have been updated using aerial photography, but not field verified, such as
<br /> disturbed land areas (e g, gravel pits) and newly developed water bodies(purple)
<br /> For more than a century, the USGS has been creating and revising topographic maps for the entire country
<br /> at a variety of scales There are about 60,000 U S Geological Survey (USGS) produced topo maps
<br /> covering the United States Each map covers a specific quadrangle (quad) defined as a four-sided area
<br /> bounded by latitude and longitude Historical topographic maps are a valuable historical resource for
<br /> documenting the prior use of a property and its surrounding area, and due to their frequent availability can
<br /> be particularly helpful when other standard historical sources (such as city directories, fire Insurance maps,
<br /> or aerial photographs) are not reasonably ascertainable
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