Land & Property
Meeting the Challenges Posed by Environmental Contaminants
Property owners, lending institutions, purchasers and sellers of real property, manufacturers, and municipalities may encounter challenges in every facet of property- and facility-related environmental issues. MD attorneys provide support and counseling on the specific regulatory framework, often recommending the right environmental consultant, determining ways of handling complex hazardous or solid waste issues, supervising large-scale remediation projects, or negotiating environmental indemnity agreements.
We advise clients in connection with migrating groundwater contamination, vapor intrusion, air deposition, underground storage tank releases, sediment contamination associated with decades of industrial activity, and soil and surface water contamination. Chemicals of interest include chlorinated solvents, total petroleum hydrocarbon, free product, heavy metals, lead, and PCBs, among others.
Investigation and Remediation
Requirements to investigate and remediate contamination can be triggered under multiple statutory programs, including Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA), Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), and the Clean Water Act (CWA) or their state counterparts. MD attorneys work closely with technical consultants in developing strategies during early planning stages, often leading negotiations with state or federal regulators to ensure reasonable risk-based approaches to remediation. Our attorneys provide legal advice in connection with multiple CERCLA removal and response actions, as well as RCRA corrective action projects and brownfield redevelopment.
Our experience in this area is deep and includes representation of a major defense contractor in a CERCLA and Ohio Voluntary Action Program (VAP) cost recovery matter related to PCB remediation, one of the largest VAP cost recovery cases ever filed in Ohio. We also represented one of Ohio’s largest cities in a VAP litigation involving a former manufacturing facility impacted by costs of PCB contamination from historical foundry operations. Our firm led the environmental work for a real estate developer in one of the largest brownfield redevelopments to date in Ohio.
MD negotiated and litigated several complex cost recovery actions involving historical contamination at former landfills, waste oil and solvent recycling facilities, foundries, manufactured gas plants, and steel processing plants. Our attorneys represented all categories of potentially responsible parties in a multitude of US EPA and state-led Superfund sites in Ohio and several other states. Our experience extends to all of the major Natural Resource Damage sites in Ohio.
