Bracewell & Giuliani's environmental strategies group represents and counsels manufacturers, chemical producers, energy companies, and others in a variety of environmental matters including major site remediation, Superfund (CERCLA), and cost recovery and natural resource damages issues. Our work covers the full range of contamination matters, including water and watershed areas; municipal and rural properties; landfills; manufacturing and industry sites; river, stream, lake and sediment issues; soil contamination; and energy-sector industrial sites. This experience includes:

• Litigation of contribution actions for cleanup liability at third-party disposal sites
• Working with multi-party Superfund committees, negotiating voluntary cleanup efforts and indemnities, and remediating contaminated watersheds and commercial and industrial properties slated for redevelopment
• Evaluating the nature and extent of contamination and developing cost-effective, environmentally sound responses
• Identifying opportunities to use environmental regulations to maximize business advantage
• Toxic tort litigation arising from exposure to soil, groundwater, and sediment contamination

Our environmental lawyers team with geotechnical engineers, hydrogeologists, chemists, environmental consultants, insurance providers, financing institutions, regulatory agencies, and other legal counsel to identify and implement sophisticated techniques that restore contaminated sites. We evaluate the nature and extent of the contamination, help estimate the cost of remediation, and develop a cost-effective, environmentally sound response within the right legal framework.

Selected Representations

• Represented a major consumer products manufacturing company in North America in the divestiture of an industrial facility located inside the boundaries of a National Priority List Superfund site located in Rhode Island.
• Advised a leading nuclear fuels company with respect to its bids for major government contracts for identifying, assessing, stabilizing, and disposing of mixed (hazardous and radioactive) waste at Oak Ridge, Hanford, and similar sites.
• Defended a municipally-owned electric utility in connection with a National Priority List Superfund site in North Carolina regarding a major Superfund matter involving PCB contamination in soil, groundwater, and stream and lake sediments.
• Defended a client against potential liability for numerous abandoned lead and barite mining sites in eastern Missouri, including alleged widespread soil contamination and affected watersheds arising from mining activities dating back over one hundred years. This federally-led investigation into potential abandoned mine "mega-sites" involves complex legal issues on restoration standards and tangled chains of corporate successors.
• In New Jersey, advised the target of judicial and administrative proceedings seeking to compel the largest remediation of contaminated river sediment in the United States and to recover additional damages for wrongful economic gain, punitive damages, and losses due to increased dredging costs over several decades.
• At the Mattiace Superfund Site in New York, negotiated a groundbreaking agreement with EPA to transfer PRP (Primary Responsible Party) liability to a third-party contractor, and negotiated a fixed fee remediation agreement with the contractor and the insurance company, backed by insurance coverage.
• Defended a major cement, concrete, and aggregates manufacturer and a Fortune 500 medical device manufacturer at a CERCLA site involving contamination of groundwater by volatile petrochemical solvents. This contamination affected drinking water wells serving over 100,000 consumers.
• Represented Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company in litigation concerning the Sikes Superfund site, one of the largest Superfund cases in the United States, in United States of America, and the State of Texas vs. Atlantic Richfield Company, et al. vs. Champion International, Corp., et al., in the United States District Court, Southern District of Texas, Houston Division.
• Defended a polymer manufacturer in a suit by the Department of Justice for CERCLA response costs. The case involved commingled wastes in soil and groundwater from 35 refinery and petrochemical plant defendants. Contaminants included refinery wastes, including benzene, ethylbenzene, toluene, polychlorinated solvents, and lead. Litigated liability and allocation issues.
• Advised a municipal development authority on the environmental aspects of the proposed re-development of a mothballed military base.
• Defended a large chemical company with regard to the Operating Industries, Inc. Superfund Site in Monterey Park, Los Angeles County, California, a site involving volatile organic compound contamination from landfill in groundwater and water-wells serving 23,000 consumers.