Practice Areas » Environmental Law

Environmental law has grown thick with overlapping and confusing federal, state, and local laws and regulations. CERCLA, RCRA, SARA, TSCA -- each legislative session brings forth more compliance burdens.

To combat this regulatory barrage, our attorneys are an experienced team of environmental problem solvers. They identify genuine environmental concerns and find sensible, economic ways of addressing them for clients in such environmentally intensive industries as steel and metals manufacturing, chemicals, construction, coal, oil, and gas.

We are determined to open the way for our clients to reach their goals and to overcome legal barriers. We counsel and assist our clients to achieve cost-effective compliance. Although we have negotiated favorable settlements for our clients, we are also aggressive advocates and have tried and won environmental cases at all levels of courts and in administrative proceedings.

Our representation of clients on environmental matters has included:

• Litigation
• Hazardous Waste Representations
• Industrial Redevelopment
• Transactions
• Permitting and Compliance Counseling
• Environmental Services Procurement

Litigation

In the area of environmental litigation, we have tried complex cases involving scores of witnesses, millions of pages of documents, and huge potential liability, as well as smaller suits. We have represented industrial clients in litigation arising from alleged compliance violations, challenges to permit actions, challenges to proposed regulations, and have defended clients in "citizen suit" actions under various environmental statutes, Federal "overfilings" and multimedia investigations, and self-disclosure matters. Our environmental attorneys also have experience in defending cease and desist actions and actions for penalties and injunctive relief concerning "wetlands" violations under the Clean Water Act and the Rivers and Harbors Act. We have negotiated directly with governmental authorities over decisions to press suit, extent of liability, and settlement. Some examples include:

• We successfully defended a large Michigan integrated steel producer in a multimillion dollar civil water pollution enforcement action against charges of more than 600 alleged violations over a three year period.

• Our client operated a plastics manufacturing facility in Ohio which discharged industrial waste to a stream that eventually fed Lake Erie, when a national environmental activist group filed a "citizens suit" against it for alleged violations of the federal Clean Water Act. We vigorously defended the matter and settled it for no penalties and an agreement for our client to expedite installation of pollution control equipment it had already committed to purchase.

• A citizens group persuaded a local government to revoke a building permit and stop renovation of a multinational corporation's Pittsburgh manufacturing plant due to concerns about use of toxic chemicals. We prepared a suit for an injunction and met with the local citizens group and the government agency. The plant was back in operation seven days later.

• State environmental authorities sought an injunction which would have required our metals production client to shut down a plant after the emergency breakdown of an air filtration mechanism required to meet state and federal regulations. The state also sought to hold company managers personally liable. Prompt intervention by our attorneys resulted in the state agency agreeing to drop charges against the named individuals and to allow our client to develop a compliance plan without any shutdown of its operations.

Hazardous Waste Representations

Our attorneys have widespread expertise in hazardous waste matters. We have actively participated as counsel in more than twenty federal and state "Superfund" hazardous waste cleanup matters and have advised clients on the concepts of due diligence, cost recovery, and successor liability in transactional contexts. We have also brought claims and negotiated with insurers for coverage of hazardous waste liability. Some examples:

• We represented a steel company that used an industrial waste recycling facility that became the subject of a state Superfund cleanup. Participating in a steering committee of over 400 potentially responsible parties, we succeeded in reducing our client's liability by demonstrating that the volume of waste attributed to it was grossly exaggerated.

• We represented a steel company that used an industrial waste recycling facility that A landfill owner/operator was compelled to respond to litigation from local, state, and federal authorities, adjoining homeowners, and a group of adverse generator and transporter potentially responsible parties. We succeeded in deferring adverse litigation while making a claim for the owner/operator against its insurers to muster additional resources.

• Our client operates an industrial park on the former site of a steel mill. When a tenant of our client discovered contaminated soils on its leased premises, we persuaded the former site owner to undertake responsibility for all costs of site cleanup and remediation, with no contribution from our client.

• We have acted as liaison counsel or common counsel for various defendant groups in Superfund cost recovery cases, have organized de minimis contributors, and worked out settlements and dismissals in multi-generator cases.

Industrial Redevelopment

The development of abandoned or former industrial properties has become a priority for both public and private sector entities. Accomplishing the goal of bringing new economic life to these properties, however, means confronting a legacy of environmental cleanup problems left over from the properties' former uses. We have worked with our clients to help them meet the cleanup standards for old properties by state and federal authorities primarily under Ohio's Voluntary Action program, Pennsylvania's Act 2 program, and Michigan's Act 201 Baseline Environmental Assessment program. Working with the Pennsylvania Chamber of Business and Industry and with NAIOP (the Association for Commercial Real Estate) our attorneys have taken lead roles in providing comments on proposed legislation to encourage reasoned cleanup standards and to provide liability protection for entities that undertake voluntary cleanups. Other examples:

• On behalf of a major hotel franchising corporation, our environmental attorneys worked with the City of Pittsburgh's Urban Redevelopment Authority in reviewing and evaluating environmental assessments of a former industrial property for use as an entertainment complex, and coordinated the initiation of voluntary remediation of the former industrial site through DER's "Greenfields" initiative.

• Our attorneys advised a major hotel developer on developing a wetlands area on the effects of state and federal dredge and fill permit programs. This included assisting our client in the scheduling of construction activities with timelines and outlines of anticipated permitting processes, regulatory controls, and appropriate remedial measures.

• We represent the owner of a 400-acre industrial park located in Ohio with a broad array of historical contamination problems. Our attorneys negotiated with, engaged the services of, and supervised environmental consultants performing site assessments and remedial work to meet existing or proposed cleanup standards. Our attorneys also negotiated reasonable cleanup standards with the state environmental agency to apply to this voluntary redevelopment.

• For the owner of another industrial park, we also negotiated with, engaged the services of, and supervised environmental consultants to conduct a voluntary remediation and redevelopment of a contaminated former industrial property. Working with the site owner, a potential lessor, and the environmental services consultant, we devised a soil cleanup, removal, and disposal scheme to meet state and federal requirements.

Transactions

We have performed environmental audits and due diligence studies with regard to the purchase, lease, and financing of real estate and commercial transactions and have negotiated indemnification agreements and price adjustments pertaining to actual or potential environmental liabilities. We have provided environmental guidance with regard to numerous transactions in a wide range of industries, including steel, aluminum, and other metals, as well as in other manufacturing, transportation, and commercial areas.

• We represented the seller of a national multi-site rental car operation. Our attorneys evaluated Phase I site assessments, developed contracts with environmental consultants to further evaluate site conditions, and to conduct appropriate remediation of contamination from underground storage tanks. As part of that transaction, our attorneys negotiated a favorable environmental indemnification and representation and warranty provisions in the purchase and sale agreement.

• We have represented numerous purchasers, sellers, lessees and lessors of petroleum processing facilities and automotive service stations.

• We assisted a leading international locomotive remanufacturer in its efforts to dispose of a division, including the completion of environmental due diligence on thirty sites in four weeks.

• Representing the buyer of a major steel company, we negotiated a twenty year environmental indemnity for all preexisting conditions.

• Representing sellers and buyers of multiple industrial properties, we work with environmental consultants to establish baseline contamination levels for use in negotiations and sales agreements, and negotiate agreements with the appropriate agencies for the permitting and installation of new, and the capping and closure of old hazardous and non-hazardous disposal sites.

• We were asked by a large pharmaceutical manufacturer to perform environmental due diligence reviews of several "target" facilities it had an interest in acquiring. We completed the reviews, which included sites in several different states, in about four weeks. On the basis of our work, the company decided to go forward with acquisition of one company, but to reject another on the basis of problems discovered during our firm's due diligence examination.

Permitting and Compliance Counseling

We have negotiated air, water, waste treatment, storage and disposal, and other permits with state and federal agencies to achieve our clients expansion and production goals. We have guided municipal and residual waste permits through the agency maze. We routinely counsel clients on rules regarding underground storage tanks and other groundwater contamination problems. We continuously counsel clients on rules and proposed regulations issued under all major federal and state environmental laws ranging from wetlands to Superfund to the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments, including mobile source controls. We have successfully represented clients purchasing emission reduction credits, and are routinely instrumental in developing and implementing environmental management systems and strategic environmental plans.

• A steel plant was operating with various emission points each of which arguably required a separate federal Clean Air Act permit. Dealing with high level officials at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, our attorney negotiated a single "bubble" permit, allowing the plant to operate, saving about $40 million and the jobs of almost 4,000 workers.

• A steel company's slag disposal permit had been under review at the state environmental agency for five years. Adjoining landowners opposed the permit. We successfully organized a technical and administrative program to get the permit issued before the new residual waste regulations became effective, extending the useful life of the site by three years.

• We have negotiated NPDES, pretreatment, and stormwater discharge permits for industrial sector clients which avoided the clients' expenditure of millions of dollars for treatment improvements and reduced their operating costs.

• We obtained the first permit issued in Pennsylvania for a tire shredding operation regulated as a municipal solid waste processing and transfer facility.

• We have represented clients on matters concerning compliance with state laws regarding underground storage tanks and other groundwater contamination matters. We have also solved problems on hazardous air pollutant emissions.

• We are currently advising steel manufacturers and processors and chemical, pharmaceutical, wood product, and battery manufacturers on compliance issues regarding air pollution, waste waters, hazardous waste, treatment, storage and disposal of wastes.

• We have advised clients on, and helped them prepare strategic environmental plans, environmental management systems, environmental compliance audits, auditing procedures and associated self-disclosure issues. We have also drafted corporate environmental compliance policies and advised corporate managers and officers on questions concerning their personal liability.

Environmental Services Procurement

We routinely engage consultants and engineers to perform environmental services on behalf of our clients. These services have included Phase I, II, and III site assessments, compliance audits, needs assessments, asbestos remediation, hazardous waste remediation, contracts for the design, implementation, operation, and maintenance of pollution control and monitoring equipment and devices, air emissions modeling, and various privileged and non-privileged sampling programs and compliance reviews. In this capacity, we have solicited information from prospective bidders, prepared requests for proposal, evaluated bid proposals, negotiated extra work, and handled all aspects of project management for the activities secured. Some examples:.

• Our client operates a large manufacturing facility which has been in continuous use for almost 200 years in the same location adjacent to a stream. PADEP imposed a requirement on the company to conduct tests on the stream to measure the effects of its industrial discharge and to implement any necessary remedial strategy. Our experience in environmental regulation enabled us to identify the most qualified and cost effective bidders for this project, from whom we solicited project proposals and whom we (and the client's environmental manager) interviewed. We selected a contractor who, while not the low bidder, submitted the optimum proposal meeting all regulatory needs and a testing regimen that would provide the most reliable results. As a result of the testing (the protocols of which PADEP approved), no remedial action proved necessary.

• A client that owns a mixed use industrial park consisting of several hundred acres with about forty tenant activities needed to conduct an environmental site assessment in order to obtain bank financing. After a preliminary review of the site and all site documentation, our attorneys prepared a Request for Proposal (RFP) and sought responses from several qualified consultants. We engaged in information exchanges with the bidders in order to refine the RFP, including several changes suggested by the bidders. As a result of this process, the winning proposal price was about 30% lower than the client had expected for the contracted services.