Contaminated Sites and Natural Resources Damages

Contaminated Sites and Natural Resources Damages

Energy, Environment and Natural Resources

Our environmental lawyers help clients ensure compliance with federal, state and local statutes, rules and procedures that govern the generation, transportation, treatment and disposal of hazardous and solid waste, including the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act and related state programs. We also represent clients in cost recovery and contribution claims under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA)—or Superfund law—and in defending enforcement claims under the Oil Pollution Act and Clean Water Act. We also assist clients in responding to all phases of natural resource damage claims asserted by federal and state trustees, including by finding ways to accomplish streamlined assessments and early restoration. Additionally, we advise on brownfields redevelopment and due diligence, working to find efficient solutions to resolve litigation or community relations challenges in connection with contaminated sites. 

Our team includes a  former senior US Department of Justice (DOJ) civil environmental prosecutor and skilled litigators who represent individuals and groups of potentially responsible parties in disputes over the proper allocation of cleanup responsibility. They bring insights from having developed innovative solutions to difficult legal issues at many of the biggest cleanup sites in the United States.

Key Contacts

Experience

  • Serving as lead counsel for defense groups in three major CERCLA proceedings and continuing to represent clients with significant CERCLA exposure nationally, including matters in New England, California, Florida, Missouri, New York and New Jersey.
  • Representing a midstream pipeline company in actions brought under the Clean Water Act and state law in response to large spill of produced water, including natural resource damages.
  • Advising a waste management company in response to a Clean Water Act citizen suit claim for groundwater contamination.
  • Representing a successor to the former operator of a chlor-akali plant in a major natural resource damages claim related to legacy pollution in a northeastern river.
  • Assisting a national renewable energy developer on all aspects of permitting, development, financing, construction and sale of utility-scale solar generation facilities located on Superfund and state-listed brownfield sites in the United States, including the first and largest solar project to be developed on a Superfund site in the northeast, which received a development achievement award from the EPA.
  • Providing strategic regulatory advice and litigation defense regarding the expansion of a publicly controversial waste management facility, which included helping the client navigate complex overlapping legal and political issues and environmental regulatory proceedings under  siting and environmental impact statutes and regulations, and managing appeals and potential litigation under state Superfund and federal hazardous waste statutes.
  • Representing a state agency in proceedings before a state utility board regarding an application to relicense a controversial nuclear energy facility, as well as subsequent petitions regarding the decommissioning of the facility.
  • Providing counseling and litigation support to a large defense contractor on environmental legal and compliance matters, including Clean Water Act issues, resolution of a contaminated property cost recovery claim, and evaluation of a potential cost recovery case.
  • Negotiating the settlement of CERCLA liability at a federally owned site on behalf of a government contractor that provided services at the facility.
  • Representing an international oil and gas company in litigation regarding the remediation of chemical dumping at a New Jersey river, one of the largest cleanups in the United States.
  • Defending a former leaseholder against claims of liability for historical contamination at commercial property in Massachusetts.
  • Representing a biotechnology company in connection with cost recovery and property contamination claims, both defensive (against the US Air Force and DOJ) and offensive (against the former site owner).

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