ABOUT ENVIRONMENTAL LAW
Environmental attorneys from Archer’s Environmental Law and Land Use and Environmental Permitting Groups handle all facets of New Jersey environmental practice including legal advice and counseling, environmental permitting activities, due diligence, litigation of enforcement actions and Federal and state statutory and common law claims for cost recovery, site remediation counseling and assistance in environmental, health and safety audits.
Archer’s environmental attorneys have years of experience with the many environmental laws that affect New Jersey’s businesses and residents. The Environmental Law Group also serves as regional counsel to a major petroleum company, handling claims and environmental litigation involving underground storage tanks and other petroleum-related releases. Firm attorneys have handled Natural Resource Damage claims, including one of the first Natural Resource Damage claims for a retail service station. Finally, the Firm has a substantial practice involving environmental insurance coverage – a lawyer from our Environmental Group represented the plaintiff in New Jersey’s leading Supreme Court environmental insurance case.
Attorneys also represent clients on environmental permitting, Industrial Site Recovery Act, air and water pollution, wetlands, solid and hazardous wastes, contract documentation and remediation of environmental sites, compliance counseling, industrial pretreatment, lender liability, oversight of environmental assessments in land sales, and project land use approvals and appeals.
ENVIRONMENTAL LITIGATION
Archer & Greiner has substantial experience litigating toxic tort and product liability claims in the environmental context. We routinely represent multiple industrial clients in the defense of proposed class actions seeking property damages and/or personal injuries as a result of exposure to contamination or hazardous products (asbestos, PCBs, etc.). As a result of this work, we have become well-versed in such areas as toxicology, epidemiology, hydrogeology, and we have developed substantial information on many plaintiff and defense experts.
The Firm serves as counsel in matters involving over 100 CERCLA Superfund sites, and over 200 sites involving state enforcement activities and/or private party litigation. Attorneys in the group also serve as regional counsel to a major oil company, handling claims and litigation involving underground storage tanks.
The Firm has a dedicated team of attorneys and paralegals as well as a hydrogeologist focusing on those issues specific to environmental matters, including:
- Environmental problems related to leaking underground storage tanks, soil and groundwater contamination and MTBE contamination;
- Defense of property damage litigation brought by owners, including owners of sites allegedly contaminated by off-site migration;
- Defense of personal injury and medical monitoring claims based on alleged contaminant exposure;
- Defense of litigation brought under the Pennsylvania Storage Tank and Spill Prevention Act, the Clean Streams Law and the Hazardous Sites Cleanup Act, as well as the New Jersey Spill Act and other common law public and private cost recovery actions including litigation seeking natural resource damages (“NRD”);
- Assertion of affirmative claims against other responsible parties;
- Petroleum Marketing Practices Act (“PMPA”) matters and other marketing matters.
PERMITTING AND REGULATORY COMPLIANCE
Archer has been extensively involved in the area of environmental permitting. As government has expanded its legislation and regulation of the field, we have developed and maintained the capability to handle not only basic local subdivision, site plan, zoning, and planning issues, but also the permitting that county, regional, state, multi-state, and federal law can impose upon virtually any development or construction project.
Clients come to us seeking wetland permit attorneys, as well as environmental law lawyers to handle many other areas of permitting and compliance, namely: New Jersey’s Industrial Site Recovery Act, air and water pollution, wetlands, solid and hazardous wastes, contract documentation and litigation involving the remediation of environmental sites, regulatory compliance counseling, industrial pretreatment, lender liability, oversight of environmental assessments in land sales, and land use approvals. As part of our regulatory negotiations and litigation defense efforts, we are accustomed to working and coordinating in the most cost-effective manner with a team of experts, consultants, project managers, engineers and technical advisors to achieve results.
Each environmental lawyer at our firm has had extensive experience in obtaining permits, approvals and certifications from local and county boards, regional and state agencies such as the New Jersey Pinelands Commission, the Delaware River Basin Commission, the Delaware and Raritan Canal Commission, the New Jersey Meadowlands Commission, the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs, the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection and Federal agencies such as the United States Army Corp of Engineers, the United States Environmental Protection Agency and the United States Fish & Wildlife Service.
Our environmental attorneys have demonstrated a solid ability to come up with innovative approaches to the securing of permits and the negotiation and litigation of permit conditions and variances from permitting requirements. These include variances from the requirements for wastewater discharges to surface water and for emissions to the air; use variances for the transportation by rail of hazardous waste and the development of solid waste treatment and disposal facilities; and the development of special management zones as part of municipal master plans.
We handle virtually all types of land development and redevelopment projects, ranging from residential site plans and subdivisions, commercial and industrial parks and shopping centers, to specialized heavy industrial facilities, electrical generation and cogeneration facilities, mining and resource extraction operations, and Brownfield sites.
We specialize in coordinating and working as a team with other professionals – the architects, planners, engineers, environmental consultants, traffic engineers, sound impact experts, hydrogeologists, geologists and economists – whose work is essential to so many projects these days. We have often been called upon to lead teams of specialists to develop extensive comments on proposed environmental regulations.
We also have significant experience with compliance counseling in the environmental regulatory arena, as well as contesting notices of violation issued by the regulatory authorities for violations of the Clean Water Act, Clean Air Act and the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act.
A-901 COMPLIANCE AND CONSULTING SERVICES
Archer attorneys have significant experience counseling and representing companies in the solid and hazardous waste industry in all aspects of their business. Clients we represent include, among others, waste transporters and haulers, brokers, and out-of-state based companies who do business in New Jersey. Our services in this area include assisting companies in each phase of the A-901 licensing process, beginning with the acquisition of a company’s New Jersey A-901 license, assisting with the CPCN application, handling annual renewals and reporting requirements, and advising on compliance with County and State rules and regulations. We also represent clients in the defense of claims involving alleged failure to obtain required regulatory permission to operate in the solid and hazardous waste industry. In the licensing process, our attorneys also handle the negotiation and review of the resulting contracts and related documents for transportation and disposal situations. Click here to learn more about Archer’s solid waste transportation compliance and consulting services.
