Remediation
Holistic advice on environmental investigations and remediations from experienced environmental lawyers
Capabilities at a glance
- Taking Superfund sites from the start of remedial investigations to the completion of all obligations, including delisting from the National Priorities List.
- Completing closure and corrective action at former Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) treatment, storage and disposal sites and waste management units at large quantity generator sites.
- Obtaining “no further action” and similar certifications from state agencies across the country under respective voluntary remediation programs.
- Advising clients on expedient and cost-effective remediation strategies for soil, groundwater, soil gas, indoor air, surface water and sediment.
A collaborative approach to environmental remediation
When remediation is required, whether in a Superfund site or otherwise, you need a team of environmental and natural resources lawyers who have extensive legal experience and technical knowledge. We believe a collaborative approach is integral to successful and cost-effective remediation. Our attorneys are used to working closely with expert environmental consultants and engineers, federal and state agencies, communications experts and, most of all, our clients themselves, to minimize expenses while ensuring the protection of human health and the environment. Our services encompass all aspects of the remedy selection and implementation process, from remedial investigations and feasibility studies through remedial design and remedial action. We provide focused services relating to the assessment, management and remediation of complex contaminated sediment sites, including complex issues associated with data analysis and modeling, remedy selection and implementation (including dredging, capping and natural attenuation), agency negotiations and public communication.
Attorneys with deep technical environmental knowledge
At Quarles, we pride ourselves on effective legal project management, excellent communication and efficient coordination. Our attorneys have helped resolve major environmental crisis events, coordinating cleanups, executing successful public relations campaigns and working directly with everyone from natural resource trustees to insurers and technical experts. When you need legal support, our team can quickly grasp the industrial and scientific aspects of your operations because we have likely seen it before. We are engaged in the detail while helping you think strategically about the big picture. We collaborate with clients and consultants on complex technical analyses (including risk assessments, fate and transport modeling, and natural resource damage assessments) to advance less expensive outcomes that effectively address environmental risk.
Experience
- CERCLA and Superfund investigation and remediation
- RCRA closure and corrective action remediation
- Shepherding sites through state cleanup programs and obtaining “no further action” letters and covenants not to sue
- Allocation of cleanup costs among private parties
- Negotiating and satisfying state and federal cleanup order obligations
- Brownfield site investigation, remediation and redevelopment
Successes
- We assisted a client in the investigation and cleanup of a nearly 50-acre riverfront property with decades of heavy industrial operations. We partnered with our client in the technical and legal aspects of the site investigation and cleanup, the negotiation of and compliance with administrative orders with the EPA, cost recovery actions against other historical site owners and operators, determining applicable insurance coverage and the sale of the property for use as the corporate headquarters of a major international company.
- We assisted a client in the purchase, remediation, leasing, sale and completion of RCRA order requirements of an over 200-acre former oil refinery and RCRA treatment, storage and disposal facility, including solvent and asbestos remediation, landfill capping and closure of hazardous waste management units.
