Services

The following is a small representative sample of our environmental experience:

Litigation

• Defending citizen suits brought under the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act and Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) against such diverse entities as a municipal airport, a rubber products manufacturer and a sanitary landfill.
• Defending chemical manufacturing and aerospace companies in environmental, toxic tort and employee exposure cases.
• Serving as common counsel in numerous Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA or Superfund) cases involving groundwater, surface water and stream sediment contamination.
• Defeating proposed national class actions involving the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) and other claims.
• Defending and settling a federal court class action involving persistent chlorinated hydrocarbon contaminating 20 miles of a nearby stream.
• Representing one of two defendants in the White River (Indiana) fish kill case involving federal, state and class action claims seeking civil damages and penalties exceeding $50 million and federal criminal prosecution under the Clean Water Act.
• Defending chemical, manufacturing and utility companies in federal and state enforcement actions under EHS laws.
• Siting of landfills and defeating opposition by neighbors.
• Defending claims relating to odor, noise, traffic and migrating offsite methane gas allegations made by hundreds of citizens living near a landfill.
• Assisting a large manufacturer with structuring its reorganization plan to maximize the discharge of prepetition environmental liabilities resulting from confirmation of the plan.
• Advising a major unsecured creditor during a Chapter 11 proceeding regarding appropriate valuation of the debtor’s prepetition environmental liabilities.
• Defending natural resource damage claims in numerous states involving sediment, groundwater and related contamination
• Defending and prosecuting multiphase CERCLA litigation, as well as litigation involving state equivalents of CERCLA.
• Defending white-collar criminal cases involving plating and refinishing plants, the scrap and drum recycling industries, heavy manufacturing and chemical-handling facilities.
• Representing a major air pollution control device manufacturer in response to third-party subpoenas in cases involving coal-fired power plants.

Regulatory Counseling

• Representing solid waste landfill clients on permitting and compliance issues
• Handling compliance counseling, auditing and permitting for clients across the United States.
• Coordinating facility audits, including voluntary disclosures pursuant to state and federal audit disclosure policies.
• Assisting in the preparation of EHS management systems; implementation of environmental health and safety codes and policies; and sustainability programs.
• Handling wetlands permitting and mitigation for real estate development projects.
• Supporting clients in preparing environmental impact statements and proposed findings of no significant impact under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and analogous state programs including energy and development projects.
• Evaluating waste-load allocation (Total Maximum Daily Loads or TMDL) for publicly owned treatment works.
• Handling National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES), RCRA and Title V air permitting for many facilities in the chemical, manufacturing, pulp and paper, and foundry industries.
• Representing chemical industry clients in matters relating to Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) disclosure requirements.
• Counseling chemical manufacturers and importers on Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) mandates, including assistance navigating the premanufacture notice (PMN) process.
• Providing pesticide regulatory counseling and prosecution of pesticide licensing for manufacturers.
• Assisting national manufacturers in developing and implementing comprehensive, internal Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act (EPCRA) Toxic Release Inventory (TRI) reporting-compliance systems.
• Assisting with Title V, Prevention of Significant Deterioration (PSD) and New Source Review (NSR) permitting for coal-fired electric generating facilities.
• Advising on underground storage tank licensing, removal and corrective action.
• Representing clients in numerous cleanup projects under state mandatory and voluntary programs across the United States, including cleanups under the Ohio Voluntary Action Program and remediation of manufacturing properties under the New Jersey Industrial Sites Recovery Act and Connecticut Transfer Act.
• Counseling on OSHA compliance
• Coordinating strategic approaches to managing all aspects of vapor intrusion issues, including agency negotiations, consultant management, community notifications and public relations.

Transactions

• Representing a lending institution on environmental issues relating to the sale of more than 500 branch offices.
• Representing sellers, buyers and developers of environmentally impaired real estate (e.g., chemical manufacturing plants, foundries).
• Handling acquisitions and dispositions of facilities for chemical manufacturing, powdered metal products, metal fabrication, foundries, paper production, paint production, utilities, co-generation and plastic molding.
• Counseling on brownfield redevelopments of a manufacturing facility converted to a transportation, logistics and warehousing complex, and of a historic arcade converted to a hotel/retail complex.
• Assisting with environmental due diligence and management of investigations for the construction of a sports complex and associated commercial development.
• Assisting numerous companies during property transfers and plant closings in all aspects of compliance with the United States’ most burdensome transfer act laws, the New Jersey Industrial Sites Recovery Act and the Connecticut Transfer Act, including applicability determinations, and completing required investigations and cleanups.
• Assisting clients during transactions to ensure compliance with Michigan’s Part 201 program, including baseline environmental assessments, Section 7(f) “due care” reports, investigations and cleanups, and to ensure compliance with Ohio’s Cessation of Regulated Operations (CRO) law.
• Assisting port authorities with negotiations of environmental provisions in agreement for sale/leaseback transaction.
• Negotiating defense and indemnity provisions and other risk-allocation mechanisms to cover preclosing environmental liabilities in asset and stock purchase agreements.