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ENVIRONMENTAL LAW

The Environmental Law group of Moss & Barnett is prepared to respond to all client needs in the area of environmental law and regulation. Our attorneys assist clients with the assessment of environmental issues and liabilities in mergers and acquisitions, as well as in real estate transactions. We are also involved with litigation related to contaminated property. Moss & Barnett attorneys have extensive experience in both the public and private law sectors, including broad experience in dealing with regulations and permitting matters involving air quality, water quality, and solid and hazardous waste management.

We have represented clients in enforcement and permitting proceedings before federal agencies, including the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, OSHA, the U.S. Department of Transportation, as well as the gamut of state and local environmental agencies. In 2004, our law firm successfully defended a local business owner against a pollution claim brought by the State of Minnesota that resulted in recovery of all attorneys’ fees incurred by our client and recognition as "Lawsuit of the Year" by Minnesota Law & Politics.

Moss & Barnett serves as outside environmental counsel to corporations with operations throughout the United States. We also help clients develop environmental management and auditing programs designed to address compliance and permitting issues. We represent clients in all areas of the environmental practice including:

Phase I environmental site assessments
Site remediation through State voluntary cleanup programs
Mergers and acquisitions due diligence
Administrative permitting and enforcement proceedings
Responses to agency requests for information
Regulatory reviews
Rulemaking proceedings
Environmental, health and safety audits
Real estate due diligence
Superfund cost recovery litigation
Potentially responsible party common counsel representation
Defense and prosecution of citizen suits
Insurance coverage disputes
Contaminated property litigation
Defense of environmental crimes

Attorneys in this Area

Joseph G. Maternowski (Chair)

News Headlines

News

Environment

[09/05] NJ cops kick in door over bird's cries for help
[09/05] Black bear busts secret Utah pot farm

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Case Summaries

Environmental Law

[09/03] Kentucky Waterways Alliance v. Johnson
In a matter brought under the Clean Water Act (CWA), judgment of district court in favor of defendant Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is affirmed in part, reversed in part, vacated in part and remanded where: 1) with respect to plaintiffs' challenge to the EPA's approval of Kentucky's categorical exemption of six types of pollution discharges from Tier II review, though the EPA's decision document details the tests conducted to measure each exemption's impact, the document often fails to include the resulting measurements; 2) court cannot review this legal conclusion's reasonableness without the EPA first discussing its assimilative-capacity loss estimates and explaining why it deems them insignificant; 3) EPA's approval of Kentucky's classification of certain waters as eligible for Tier I protection rather than Tier II protection was not arbitrary, capricious, and contrary to law. Case is remanded to EPA so that it may address the deficiencies in its consideration of state's de minimis exemptions.

[09/02] Ctr. for Biological Diversity v. California Fish and Game Comm'n.
Judgment overturning rejection of petition is affirmed where the California Fish and Game Commission erred in rejecting at the threshold a petition to add the California tiger salamander to the Commission's list of endangered species, under the California Endangered Species Act (CESA).