Environmental Law Group

Services Provided:

Our environmental law practice is diverse and vigorous. We guide corporate, individual, governmental, and non-profit clients through the VRAP process, state and local environmental permitting, compliance matters, state and local administrative appeals, and enforcement actions. Using our in-depth knowledge of the law and our strong working relationships with regulatory agencies, we assist clients with obtaining permits and approvals from the Maine DEP (such as under the Maine Site Location of Development law, the Maine Solid Waste and Septage Act, the Maine Natural Resources Protection Act ("NRPA"), and the Maine Stormwater Law), the Army Corps of Engineers, the Bureau of Parks and Lands, the Land Use Regulation Commission, the Maine Inland Fisheries & Wildlife, the State Planning Office, and the Maine Department of Transportation. Our practice also involves negotiating the cleanup of contaminated sites, both petroleum and hazardous waste sites, with governmental authorities and third party landowners, and minimizing our clients liability for the same on a go-forward basis.

We also spend much of our time evaluating and minimizing our clients' environmental risks as they pursue and complete real estate and business transactions that involve the transfer of contaminated or potentially contaminated properties. We advise clients of their potential liabilities under federal environmental laws, including CERCLA ("Superfund"), RCRA, TSCA and the Clean Water Act, including federal point source discharge laws, and their Maine counterparts, included the Maine Uncontrolled Sites Law, the Maine Oil Pollution Liability Act, the Maine hazardous waste laws, and MPDES. We regularly assist clients with environmental due diligence in connection with acquisitions, mergers, or the sale of commercial and industrial properties. We advise clients and advocate for them in connection with sale or lease agreements in which there are complicated allocations of environmental liability, and work with clients in the resolution of outstanding environmental issues in connection with those transactions, such as the closing out of environmental escrow accounts, or advising them on exercising indemnification provisions.

It is our specialized knowledge of environmental law, coupled with our commitment to personal service, efficiency, and relationship-building that makes us unique and powerful representatives for our clients. The Environmental Practice Group also handles matters relating to renewable energy, brownfields redevelopment, general environmental and land use permitting, endangered species and water quality.

Hope Creal Jacobsen chairs the Environmental Practice Group, whose members also include Jim Katsiaficas, David McConnell, and Sara Moppin.

Representative Matters:

• Successfully worked towards the defeat of L.D. 78 on behalf of a scrap yard client. The legislation would have prohibited any scrap yard facility from locating within 1000 feet of any waterbody in the state of Maine.
  
  
• Represented the Maine Municipal Association in drafting a sample post-construction stormwater regulation ordinance for use by twenty-eight Maine cities and towns affected by the Clean Water Act.
  
  
• Assisted a client in a 1031 real estate exchange of contaminated property in Southern Maine
  
  
• Led the environmental due diligence effort in a potential joint venture with a large renewable energy company
  
  
• Advised a multinational company on desired allocation of environmental liability in a multi-site sale of commercial sites throughout the Northeast
  
  
• Worked with state regulators to facilitate payment to clients under state groundwater cleanup funds for reimbursement of remediation costs at petroleum contaminated sites
  
  
• Advised a utility client on various options for proceeding with the sale or lease of contaminated property, including mechanisms for the transfer of environmental liability for the same
  
  
• Worked with a local land trust to acquire potentially contaminated and contaminated properties while minimizing the land trust's environmental liability