Contaminated Sites
Arnold & Porter offers one of the nation's most experienced teams in addressing every facet of the problems posed by contaminated property, from defending against toxic tort claims, federal Superfund enforcement, and RCRA citizen suit litigation, to navigating the labyrinth of overlapping cleanup authorities, managing the regulatory process, negotiating with federal and state authorities, and conducting brownfields and risk transfer transactions that lead to successful redevelopment. We also offer one of the nation's leading Natural Resource Damage (NRD) practices, with unsurpassed experience in all phases of the site contamination life cycle — from investigation to remedy, insurance to allocation, and toxic tort. While the strategies we employ at a contaminated site may require complex and often novel solutions, our goals are straightforward: to successfully defend litigation surrounding the site, to arrive at a cost-effective and technically achievable remedy, to mitigate the public and community relations problems likely to be encountered as a result of the site, and to assist the client with site redevelopment.
Experience Highlights
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BP as primary environmental counsel in connection with the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico since 2010. We have been core members of BP’s virtual legal team, and our diverse responsibilities have included acting as lead counsel to the incident investigation team; managing the economic claims process; defending BP in citizen action lawsuits; leading the company's Natural Resource Damages (NRD) defense; participating as trial counsel in the Clean Water Act penalty phase; participating in the defense of federal government and foreign state actions; and acting as lead counsel on claims related to federal debarment.
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Honeywell in successful defense of a putative toxic tort class action which initially sought medical monitoring and property damage claims related to approximately 135 sites in New Jersey allegedly contaminated by chromium.
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Honeywell in negotiating with EPA regarding Superfund remediation, obtaining contribution from all other PRPs, and coordinating with site developer so that site development is coordinated with remediation.
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Chemours, as lead environmental counsel, on a range of regulatory, enforcement and litigation matters relating to the presence of chemicals in the Cape Fear River in North Carolina attributable to the client's facility, including a chemical referred to as GenX.
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BP and ARCO as lead counsel for numerous cases originating on the West Coast involving the gasoline additive MTBE, and served as co-national coordinating counsel in ongoing national MDL proceedings involving MTBE. The proceedings involved nearly one hundred lawsuits and hundreds of parties complaining of groundwater contamination from MTBE.
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Atlantic Richfield in the remediation of a nuclear disposal site.
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Monsanto (now Bayer) in developing a comprehensive, integrated strategy for anticipated NRD claims resulting from phosphate mining operations in Southeast Idaho.
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[DO NOT USE, DEPARTED TEAM] Solutia/Eastman Chemical, as lead counsel, with respect to potential NRD liability at PCB manufacturing plants across the country.
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Honeywell, as lead counsel, at Brunswick LCP Superfund Site, one of the most complicated NRD cases in the Eastern United States involving alleged injuries to wetlands, fish, and marine mammal.
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Honeywell in CERCLA remedial investigations at numerous sites in the New York/New Jersey waterways.
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