Hazardous Waste
Our lawyers have extensive experience with the environmental issues associated with solid waste transportation and disposal. We represent cities, waste management districts, sanitary districts, and numerous related businesses in transactions and litigation. We also counsel on landfill closure and post-closure issues, including CERCLA litigation for such costs. We represent plaintiffs and defendants in environmental cost recovery matters including actions based on CERCLA, RCRA, the Hazardous Substance Account Act, traditional torts and the Polanco Act. We have been lead counsel on significant CERCLA exposure matters, including hazardous waste and groundwater site contamination. We help clients recover costs and protect them from liabilities resulting from another party’s actions.
Our expertise includes:
- Due Diligence
- CERCLA/HSAA (Enforcement Defense, 107/113 Contribution/Cost Recovery Litigation, Common Counsel, AAI Counsel, 106 Information Requests)
- RCRA (Compliance Counseling, Citizen Suit Defense, Enforcement Defense, Permitting)
- Emergency Response/Reporting
- EPCRA
- Risk Management
- Pipeline Regulations
- Hazardous Material Transportation
- Medical Waste
- Radiation—Enforcement/Closure/OSHA
Representative Matters
- Tesoro Refining and Marketing Co. LLC v. County Sanitation Dist. No. 3 of Los Angeles County, et al. Meyers Nave represented Tesoro as plaintiff in federal court cost-recovery litigation against a dozen defendants including the owner of an adjacent oilfield and refinery wastewater treatment site and pipeline entities. The site is under Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board oversight, and the cost-recovery causes of action include CERCLA, RCRA and common law claims. Tesoro sought to recover millions of dollars in past costs as well as future costs in the millions or tens of millions of dollars.
- South Archibald TCE Plume: Complex Groundwater Contamination Issues. Meyers Nave is representing the Inland Empire Utilities Agency (IEUA) in a multiparty CERCLA dispute over a multimillion-dollar cleanup of the South Archibald trichloroethylene (TCE) groundwater plume. IEUA is leading this effort to creatively resolve a decades-old problem. To fund a cleanup, we worked with IEUA to leverage grant money from several different sources. After lengthy negotiations with the parties and the state regulatory agency, the matter was settled by execution of a global agreement between all parties and an administrative settlement with the state that provides a high degree of certainty and contribution protection.
- CERLA Cost Recovery. Meyers Nave attorneys counseled a pharmaceutical company on a federal multi-million dollar cost recovery action under CERCLA, based on alleged historical discharges of hazardous wastes. Lawsuit involved technical and expert issues relating to impacts to vicinity groundwater and changes in local and regional groundwater levels and flow direction over 35 years.