Environmental Litigation

McLane's Environmental Team works in conjunction with our Commercial Litigation Department on a variety of environmental cases, including: matters in numerous jurisdictions for large commercial clients involving CERCLA cost-recovery actions related to historic manufactured gas plant (MGP) liabilities; defense of MGP-based claims for property damage and personal injury; pursuit of insurance recovery for substantial environmental liabilities; and defense of a major groundwater contamination case involving statewide MTBE contamination.

Recent examples of our environmental litigation work include:

Clean Air Act permitting - We assist various major industrial clients with analysis and development of strategies associated with substantial revisions to operations and Clean Air Act permitting implications, including acquisition of new and amended permits and resolution of enforcement actions.

Shoreland protection cases - Our attorneys have handled numerous cases involving state, federal and local wetlands. More than a dozen such cases have been resolved favorably for our clients by way of obtaining approval for construction within the shoreland protected area and regulated wetlands, including development or retention of marinas, boathouses, boat docking systems, breakwaters and man-made beaches.

Large groundwater withdrawals - We have handled regulatory approval matters for municipal public water suppliers, industrial plant process water supply, and large groundwater withdrawal production wells for bottled water facilities. New Hampshire comprehensively regulates large and small groundwater withdrawal, requiring extensive site investigation, hydrologic computer modeling, a closely monitored water withdrawal test and evaluation of the surrounding watershed.

Telecommunications site acquisitions - We are responsible for ongoing evaluation of environmental site assessments performed as required by ASTI standards, and preparing attorney review letters regarding New Hampshire properties contemplated for use as telecommunication facilities. Our representation includes analysis of technical reports prepared by engineering firms in the context of a variety of New Hampshire and federal environmental regulatory statutes.

Superfund site - We have been lead counsel at a Superfund site among the potentially responsible parties for two decades. The site investigation of hazardous wastes culminated in a negotiated settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice, the Environmental Protection Agency and the State of New Hampshire embodied in a consent decree filed in the U.S. District Court. The private parties have continued to work with state and federal regulators to investigate the site conditions adjacent to their manufacturing plants, prepare and submit to the government the engineering design for a remedial system, and to construct and operate that system. The system began operation within the last three years. Significant regulatory issues led to litigation, resolved this year, concerning the adequacy of the system performance and related insurance coverage matters.