Environmental

Lathrop & Gage has a long track record of success in the entire range of issues that fall under the umbrella of environmental law. 

Our primary experience includes:

• Clean air and water regulation
• Chemical regulation
• Contaminated real estate
• Environmental insurance
• Environmental litigation
• Natural resource damages
• Occupational safety
• Solid/hazardous waste
• Superfund (CERCLA) regulation
• Toxic tort

Lathrop & Gage attorneys have served as state attorneys general and held leadership positions at environmental regulatory agencies. With a long history of representing manufacturers, distributors, formulators and applicators of agrichemical products, we also work with pipeline companies in the area of PCBs and emissions. We frequently analyze insurance coverage and contracts, interpret current and emerging environmental legislation and advise on the pros and cons of legal actions.

Our work brings us before federal and state regulatory agencies such as the Environmental Protection Agency, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, state departments of natural resources and environmental protection and local governmental authorities. We work with clients around the country on environmental due diligence and OSHA compliance.

We have experience handling the complex insurance recovery matters for companies and owners of real property. Our experience in this area of the law includes interpretation of qualified pollution exclusions from state to state, making claims, negotiating settlements and trying to maximize recovery through litigation. We work to limit client liability for latent or accidental contamination by negotiating and upholding their rights within insurance agreements and contracts.

Representative Experience:

• Handling the Natural Environmental Policy Act Environmental Impact Statements for a proposed intermodal rail facility in Edgerton, Kansas. This work includes 404 permitting to move a sizable portion of stream, air quality and environmental impacts from a new traffic interchange on a major interstate. Additionally, Lathrop & Gage was responsible for local permitting and mitigation issues with the Corps of Engineers, United States EPA, and local governments. This project, when completed, will be rivaled by at most 2 or 3 other intermodal facilities in the world.  This intermodal facility will cover 1,000 acres and is long enough to handle 1.5-mile long trains carrying 250 to 280 double-stacked containers.  It will include more than 7 million square feet of warehouse space.  The facility is expected to begin construction in 2011, and will have the capacity to handle 400,000 containers a year, increasing to 1.5 million containers per year.
• Assisting major pesticide manufacturer and formulator with plant environmental issues including wastewater, storm water and Resource Conservation and Recovery Act matters. Negotiating National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permits, including storm water for manufacturing facilities.
• Providing ongoing counsel for a client in the natural gas pipeline industry to address use authorizations and compliance with PCB regulations; assist client and its consultants in preparing comments to proposed rulemaking that would make sweeping changes to PCB regulations.
• Assisting a major oil company in responding to various government demands and claims, including threatened litigation and administrative actions; seeking inter alia, reimbursement of millions of dollars allegedly paid from state petroleum storage tank cleanup fund programs; and evaluating global insurance settlements and trust fund claims with respect to gasoline service stations across the country.
• Represent major international producer and marketer of food, agricultural, financial and industrial products and services in potential several-hundred-million- to billion-dollar clean-up and natural resource protection of Willamette River in Portland, Oregon.

Speaking Engagements