Our municipal and state government experience includes:

• Successfully assisting municipal entities in consent decree negotiations and renegotiations with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Justice with respect to long term control plans for stormwater management and sewer overflow, green infrastructure, and other Clean Water Act (CWA) permitting and compliance issues.
• Representing numerous public, quasi-public, and private entities in securing and defending as needed in litigation, environmental and land use approvals for a wide range of complex commercial, transportation, entertainment, and infrastructure projects – including redevelopment of contaminated sites, which includes mega-projects such as the Intercounty Connector expressway in Maryland, the Verizon Center and Union Station redevelopment project in Washington, D.C., and the Tappan Zee Bridge in New York.
• Successfully defending our municipal clients where individual plaintiffs, or groups of plaintiffs, have sought to bring claims based upon the alleged presence of lead and other contaminants in drinking water, negotiating numerous Administrative Orders on Consent and defended enforcement actions brought under the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) and its state counterparts, and producing a leading desk-book on SDWA developments and compliance, including matters involving implementation of the Revised Total Coliform Rule and amendments to the Lead and Copper Rule.
• Helping cities obtain permits for new or expanded existing landfills and address new challenges related to waste management, from product take-back and recycling to beneficial use of biosolids from wastewater treatment- for example, securing a trial win for the City of Los Angeles that protects the long-standing use of biosolids as a fertilizer and soil amendment on farms in Kern County, the first trial focused on the benefits and safety of recycling biosolids to farmland, a practice used by many of America’s largest cities for decades.
• Helping municipal clients navigate all aspects of compliance with Clean Air Act regulations for criteria pollutants, hazardous air pollutants, and greenhouse gases.
• Helping municipal clients devise strategies for coordinating permits with state and federal resource agencies such as the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, the National Park Service, the U.S. Coast Guard, the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation, and others.
• Anticipating and proactively managing sensitive and possibly contentious multi-stakeholder interactions, including those related to environmental justice.
• Regularly advising clients on remediation and development of contaminated sites; environmental insurance coverage review and placement; project and facility permitting and land use issues; and litigation that may arise from redevelopment activities.