Environmental State and Local Government

Stevens & Lee assists state and local governments and private developers in a wide variety of environmental matters. We have provided legal assistance to municipalities and local government authorities in connection with matters, including:

Regulated underground storage tanks
Voluntary remediation of environmentally impaired properties
Clean Water Act and Clean Air Act permitting and compliance
Environmental litigation
Brownfields development, property acquisitions and divestitures
Defense of federal and state enforcement actions

We have significant experience in assisting clients in obtaining environmental insurance coverage and in formulating and implementing cleanup plans to attain liability protection in order to acquire blighted property for redevelopment purposes.

Stevens & Lee has served as environmental counsel in a number of significant transactions in the state and local government arena, including the following representative matters:

Assisted a private client with the environmental aspects of a bargained sale to transfer an abandoned manufacturing facility to a local municipal authority for redevelopment into a community arts center
Served as environmental counsel to a non-profit municipal redevelopment authority in the redevelopment of multiple former center-city industrial properties into a multi-purpose sports and entertainment venue
Represented a municipality in implementing and modifying consent decree with the U.S. Department of Justice, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection calling for extensive evaluation of its treatment system, revision to Act 537 long range plan, installation of monitoring systems at multiple pump stations, preparation of standard operating procedures (SOPs) for collection system and treatment plant, preparation of pollutant management plan, and completion of extensive collection system upgrade to address infiltration and inflow
Represented a municipal authority in an appeal to the Pennsylvania Environmental Hearing Board of the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection’s unilateral modification of the sewage treatment plant’s National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit that reduced the plant’s maximum design flows by a third
Represented two municipalities in DEP challenge of municipal land application ordinances identifying conditions under which sludges could be applied to open land; matters involved questions under Right-to-Farm law
Advised a school district in issues relating to incentives and other matters concerning installation of renewable energy/solar system and issues relating to ownership, lease and power purchase agreement structures