Environmental Law

Michelman & Bricker, P.C.
Philadelphia Environmental Law Attorneys

Experienced Environmental Law Firm

Our clients face high levels of responsibility for environmental protection and compliance, along with severe legal risks if applicable standards are violated. To meet these risks, we have developed a high degree of sophistication about the scientific, technical, and legal issues involved in environmental law.

We work closely with engineers, scientists, and other consultants to advise our clients on permit applications and regulatory requirements, to help them avoid government enforcement actions. Where necessary, we defend against federal and state government administrative actions or lawsuits, and criminal prosecutions as well, since many environmental laws have strict liability criminal penalties applicable to even accidental violations.

We have been a leader in negotiating creative settlements with EPA in order to reduce the fines and penalties which our clients would otherwise have paid, by developing and implementing environmentally beneficial projects known as “Supplemental Environmental Projects”(SEP’s).

Significant activities of the Firm in this area include:

Superfund (CERCLA) Litigation Over Sites Contaminated With Hazardous Substances:

• Served as Liaison Counsel for 120 generators in the Combe Fill South Landfill litigation, supervising their participation in an ADR allocation process and conducting settlement negotiations over the federal and state governments’ demands for $200 million in clean-up costs and natural resource damages.
  
  
• Served as Liaison Counsel for 10 generators in the Combe Fill North Landfill litigation, negotiating a $1.1 million dollar settlement for clean-up costs and natural resource damages.
  
  
• Served as Common Counsel for 25 generators, transporters, and adjacent landowners, and conducted discovery on behalf of a 50-party liaison group, in private party Superfund landfill litigation over cleanup of Cinnaminson Groundwater Contamination Site.

• Served as Liaison Counsel for 70 transporters in the BEMS Landfill litigation, supervising their participation in an ADR process and Mediation process to allocate $30+ million in clean-up costs under the New Jersey Spill Act.
  
  
• Represented individual generators and transporters of solid and/or hazardous wastes in federal and/or state clean-up actions at landfills, treatment facilities, and industrial facilities in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York and Maryland.
  

Suppliment Environmental Projects ("SEP's):

• As Lead Counsel for 5 manufacturers in Puerto Rico in litigation with EPA for failure to report storage of hazardous chemicals, we negotiated a settlement in which they designed and implemented a $210,000 SEP to provide EPCRA education and training program for business community and general public in Puerto Rico, and a small fine, instead of the $1.2 million in fines originally assessed.
  
  
• As counsel for a Graphics Design business sued by EPA under EPCRA for failure to report use of hazardous chemical, we negotiated a settlement which implemented a SEP to change the facility’s production process to completely eliminate its use of nitric acid.
  
  
• As counsel for a paint manufacturer sued by EPA over labeling violations for a pesticide product, we designed and implemented a program to reduce pollution and restore natural resources in Barnegat Bay, NJ, by planting and harvesting more than 2 million clams.
  

Insurance Coverage Dispute:

• Counsel in various declaratory judgment actions and in negotiating claims to establish the duty to defend and indemnify Potentially Responsible Parties in landfill clean-up actions, including disputes over choice-of-law between different parties, and the applicability of automobile insurance coverage to environmental claims.
  
  
• Assisted an insurance company in evaluating whether costs expended for the cleanup of a Superfund site were covered by a cost-cap environmental insurance policy.
  

Underground Storage Tanks:

• Represented gasoline station owner in appeal of state administrative clean-up order over gasoline leak, challenging State's failure to promulgate regulations for low-interest remediation loans to tank owners, under Pa. Storage Tank Act.
  
  
• Represented former owner of gasoline station in litigation and mediation with successor owner, operator, and gasoline suppliers.
  

Environemtal Permits

• Obtained the first waste-oil processing permit ever issued by PADEP, despite the fact that the company was under criminal investigation for failing to obtain a permit before commencing operations.
  
  
• Obtained plan approval for a New Source under the Clean Air Act for emissions from installation of a new press at Rotogravure Printing facility; Obtained administrative permit amendment for a plan approval for emissions from a parts washing unit (which was part of a Title V permit).
  
  
• Approval from the NJ DEP for the sale of a minority stockholder’s interest in a corporation which owned a former landfill property that was undergoing closure activities.
  

Asbestos:

• Represented a commercial roofing contractor in a Clean Air Act civil enforcement action, over failure to follow NESHAPS work practice requirements in removal of a roof from a multi-unit apartment complex.
  
  
• Defended an asbestos removal contractor against Clean Air Act criminal charges for knowingly permitting a subcontractor to remove asbestos from a school building without complying with NESHAPS work practices rules.
  
  
• Represented a manufacturer of building products which contained asbestos, in personal injury class action litigation in Puerto Rico, obtaining its early dismissal from the case.

Treatment, Storage And Disposal Of Hazardous Waste(RCRA):

• Represented corporate vice president of trash-trailer manufacturing business in a civil fraud/RICO action (seeking rescission of the $14 million sale of the company due to non-disclosure of illegal dumping), and in a criminal prosecution for illegal storage and disposal of waste solvents.
  
  
• Represented a metal plating facility owner in state criminal prosecution over discharges of metals and cyanides into the sewer system and improper storage of drums of wastewater sludges.
  

Water Pollution (Clear Water  Act):

• Represented a manufacturer in federal civil penalty action for failure to comply with stormwater discharge notification, monitoring, and reporting requirements.
  
  
• Represented owner of conference center in negotiations with local municipal sewage authority to prevent degradation of water quality in lake from effluent discharges from construction of new sewer treatment plant.

Wetland:

• Represented owner of commercial property against claims that wetlands had been improperly filled and that stormwater had been improperly discharged into them. Obtained the dismissal of federal and state citizen-suits claims seeking millions of dollars in civil penalties, and claims for attorneys fees under the New Jersey Environmental Rights Act.
  
  
• Represented a developer against EPA’s claims that he had destroyed wetlands by excavating land to build a pond, and settled these claims for a $100 civil penalty, after demonstrating that the property had not been a regulated wetlands.

Air Pollution and Air Quality( Clean Air Act):

• New Source Review and Title V Permits: Obtained Clean Air Act New Source Review plan approval for emissions from installation of a new press at a Rotogravure Printing facility; Resolved civil penalties action for construction of the New Source prior to issuance of permit; Obtained administrative permit amendment for a plan approval for emissions from a parts washing unit (which was part of a Title V permit).
  
  
• Represented plastics manufacturer in negotiation of settlement with state air quality agency over construction of several New Sources (extruding machines) without obtaining a permit first.
  
  
• Represented a rubber textile manufacturer in resolving its air quality violations with the City of Philadelphia.
  

Construction And Demolition Waste:

• Represented contractor charged criminally under Pa. Solid Waste Management Act for dumping construction and demolition debris at an unpermitted site. We negotiated a guilty plea to a reduced charge (with a sentence of probation and a fine which they worked off through a remediation project at another site); prevented debarment of the company from bidding on City contracts and the forfeiture of over one million dollars worth of trucks; won DER approval for a remediation plan for the site.

Real Estate Transaction And Brownfields Clean-Ups of Contaminated Properties:

• Counsel for real estate developer in obtaining state regulatory approval of in-situ remediation of fuel oil contamination through soil venting, so that property could be used for a parking lot and hotel.
  
  
• Counsel for owner of industrial park in negotiating sale, supervising cleanup of petroleum hydrocarbon spills, and obtaining release of liability from PADEP.
  
  
• Counsel for a plastics processing company in obtaining ECRA approval for sale of its facility after heating oil spill.
  
  
• Counsel for a tire retailer in purchase of former gas station facility in obtaining “Brownfields” Prospective Purchaser Agreement from NJDEP, releasing it from potential liability for ongoing cleanup by former owner.
  
  
• Represented owner of shopping mall in obtaining Act 2 release of liability from the state for soil and groundwater contamination from a fuel oil release migrating from an adjoining commercial property.

Resource Conservation And Recovery Act (RCRA)

• Represented chemical exporter in criminal investigation into whether chemicals shipped overseas (that leaked in port, causing $1 million Euros of damage) were legally shipped as salable product or were actually waste that was improperly exported without a permit for disposal.

International Environmental Problem:

• Representation of a U.S. manufacturer with respect to an environmental due diligence investigation due to the acquisition of a factory in Northwestern Mexico.

Toxic Tort Litigation:

• Represented multiple parties in a $33 million dollar property damage and personal injury claim class action lawsuit brought by homeowners surrounding GEMS Landfills.

  Contact an environmental law attorney Today

  Michelman & Bricker, P.C. Environmental law lawyers
  Pennsylvania Office 2207 Chestnut Street Philadelphia, PA 19103 Phone: (215) 557 – 9440 Fax: (215) 557 – 9450	New Jersey Office 811 Church Road, Suit 117-A Cherry Hill, NJ 08002 Phone: (856) 661 – 9499 Fax: (215) 557 – 9450
  Massachusetts Office 51 Clairmont Street Longmeadow, MA 01106 Phone: (413) 567 – 7678 Fax: (413) 567 – 5298	Puerto Rico Office 316 San Francisco Street, 4th Floor San Juan, Puerto Rico 00901 Phone: (787)725-1004 Fax: (787) 721-0899

  Located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the health care, construction, family law, criminal defense, business law, and environmental law attorneys of Michelman & Bricker, P.C., serve clients throughout Montgomery, Delaware, Bucks, Chester, Camden, Bergen, Burlington, Middlesex, and Gloucester counties, including the communities of Doylestown, Harrisburg, Reading, Pottstown, Allentown, Easton, Scranton, Media, Norristown, Camden, Trenton, and Newark.  The firm’s lawyers also have offices in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, Longmeadow (Springfield), Massachusetts and San Juan, Puerto Rico, and serve clients along the Eastern Seaboard.