Environmental Law

Principals have experience handling a number of different environmental matters for clients. These matters have generally fallen into one of the following two broad sub-types:

Real Estate Counsel

• We have helped prospective buyers of commercial property perform environmental due diligence to assess the properties’ contamination liability exposure by collaborating with engineers on Phase I and Phase II site assessments, using the Department of Environmental Conservation Sites Management Section’s (SMS) “ANR Atlas” G.I.S. program and other services.
• We have helped owners of polluted property protect their interests while collaborating with Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation monitoring and remediation efforts.
• We have helped clients navigate the Underground Storage Tank (UST) Rules promulgated under the authority granted by 10 VSA Chapters 59 and 159 as well as helping them access the various financial assistance programs found in subchapter 2 of Chapter 59.
• We have shepherded owners, buyers and developers of diverse property types ranging from farms to quarries to dry-cleaners to industrial facilities through the land use and environmental permitting laws applicable to their particular situation, including Act 250, stormwater, wastewater, brownfields and land conservation.

Litigation

• We have brought common law nuisance claims and claims under section 1410 of Vermont’s Groundwater Protection Act for “stigma damage” to properties’ market value incident to contamination that has migrated from neighboring properties via groundwater.
• We have successfully invoked statutory affirmative defenses on behalf of landowners who have been the subject of enforcement actions brought by the Vermont Attorney General’s Office pursuant to the Vermont Waste Management Act, 10 VSA §§ 6601, et seq. See, State v. Howe Cleaners, Inc., 188 Vt. 303 (2010).
• We have obtained insurance coverage for former owners of a facility associated with the release of perchloroethylene even though the applicable policy of insurance purported to contain a pollution liability exclusion.

Professionals Practicing in this Area