Environmental Law Matters

Certain regulated entities that operate under Clean Air Act permits are being reminded that those permits do not necessarily cover air emissions associated with the management of hazardous wastes regulated by the federal Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) and various State counterpart statutes. RCRA regulations governing hazardous waste management include certain requirements intended to prevent fugitive emissions of hazardous air pollutants, and these can operate separate from or in addition to requirements imposed by a facility's air permit.

An EPA national ...

Our firm has recently represented clients in two projects associated with brownfields that may signal an increased willingness on the part of regulatory authorities to facilitate redevelopment of contaminated properties. As individuals and companies around the nation began to reassess the impacts of sprawl, the ability to redevelop brownfield properties provides an opportunity to make these properties productive to the benefit of the new owner directly and the community generally. One project involved the redevelopment of a portion of an abandoned automobile manufacturing ...

We have periodically updated the status of EPA's long-running effort to decide whether and how to regulate coal ash generated primarily from electric power generation. Recent events have put EPA on a course to make a final decision and may also signal the substance of that decision. As noted previously, in 2010 EPA sought public comment on alternative proposals to regulate coal ash, one being regulation as a hazardous waste under Subtitle C of the federal Resource Conservation and Recovery Act ("RCRA") and the other would regulate the material as a solid, but not hazardous, waste under ...