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ELN Success Stories

 


• Negotiated a favorable settlement of a significant opacity enforcement case in May 2006.  A state agency, acting at the encouragement of EPA, issued a Notice of Violation (“NOV”) alleging over 3,300 opacity violations placing the client’s plant operations in peril due to the potential liabilities.  Settlement negotiations lasted nearly two years, and resulted in payment of a $75,000 civil penalty along with an agreement to install particulate matter controls at the plant and fund several supplemental environmental projects (“SEP”).  The plant’s Title V air operating permit came up for renewal during negotiations which complicated the settlement.  During the course of negotiations, the client was also able to renegotiate its primary customer contracts resulting in additional revenues to support the settlement.

• Filed an informal appeal of objectionable conditions placed on a renewed Title V air operation permit granted to a client in Alaska.  The agency director ruled in the client’s favor on both issues.

• Represented a client that received a notice of violation from a local air agency alleging noncompliance due to a change in fuel suppliers.  No physical or operational changes occurred at the plant; rather, the plant began purchasing wood-based fuels from suppliers that were chipping wood derived from “urban” sources rather than traditional forest sources.  The matter was settled by including the client’s fuel quality assurance procedures in an enforceable order and by having the client submit a form documenting an exemption from the NOC requirements. No fine was levied against the client.


• Obtained an agency determination that emissions during the initial construction of an oil production well were not counted towards PSD permit applicability or against PSD avoidance limits.

 

• Successfully represented family interests in three properties which housed metal working plants with significant environmental contamination resulting from the release of metal working and metal cooling fluids.
 

Plant 1  was straightforward in that the former family business was the only tenant of the building since construction.  ELN convinced the tenant to conduct and fund a thorough cleanup of the property (estimated at $1 million).  However the tenant refused to pay for the client’s legal and consulting fees.  ELN and litigation co-counsel sued the tenant and recouped all out of pocket expenses for the client.

Plant 2  had a history of use by multiple entities including the client’s own businesses. The current tenant had contributed to the contamination and could not attribute it to other parties.  Negotiations resulted in a settlement whereby the tenant paid for the client’s entire out-of-pocket expenses for past and future estimated costs as well as the estimated premium for environmental insurance.

Plant 3  involved the Land Owner, the Building Owner-Client and two Tenants) with a plume of chlorinated solvent under the building and metal working fluids under the building floor.  The Land Owner sought reimbursement for costs related to the solvent plume.  An ELN-led review concluded that the solvent did not originate on the property and the client formally denied the claim based, in part, under the doctrine that a person who acquires property through inheritance is an “innocent purchaser” and immune from federal and state superfund liability.

Also at Plant 3, the client was demanding of the Occupant assessment and remediation of the contamination under the floor when the Occupant announced its insolvency and pending asset sale.  The Occupant and the buyer of the Occupants assets were attempting to extinguish their environmental obligations but the deal required an assignment of the lease from the Client.  Using that leverage, ELN negotiated an agreement for cost sharing of an environmental investigation and remediation with $500,000 contributed to an escrow account for that purpose by the Occupant and Buyer.

 

 

For other success stories select the links below:

Air Quality
Water Quality
Contaminated Properties
Environmental Management and Auditing
Enforcement
Hazardous and Solid Wastes
Community Service/Pro Bono Activities

 

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