Waste Cleanup Practice
Parties identified as potentially responsible for cleanups at contaminated sites look to Marten Law Group to reduce their costs and expedite resolution of claims. Where appropriate, we also seek contribution from other parties. We have the substantive expertise to negotiate effectively with regulators to control project costs while establishing and implementing an effective remedy for putting property back into productive use.
Lawyers at Marten Law Group have extensive experience with Superfund and its state counterparts and have represented clients at major sites around the United States. We have represented individual corporate defendants, groups of companies defending against government actions, as well as prosecuting and defending contribution claims.
Experience:
Superfund Cleanups (federal and state) • Brownfields Redevelopment • Oil Spills • Underground Storage Tank Releases • Cost Recovery/Contribution Actions
Representative Matters:
- After one of our municipal clients discovered that its wellfield was contaminated with solvents coming from an adjacent military installation, it spent millions of dollars addressing the problem, only to discover that it had been identified as a potentially responsible party for remediating the contamination. The firm obtained insurance coverage to cover the costs of defense, and then prosecuted a cost recovery and contribution action to recover the client’s remediation costs from the military and its defense contractors.
- A Marten Law Group partner served as lead defense counsel before the U.S. District Court and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit for the former operator of a Superfund Site in litigation against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for cost recovery claims under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA).
- The firm represents a large manufacturing company located in the Tacoma Tide flats in an arbitration proceeding to enforce the cleanup obligation of the adjacent property owner under the terms of a MTCA settlement.
- Marten Law Group lawyers are representing a municipality in the voluntary remediation of a landfill in eastern Washington.
- We are representing a large property owner in Seattle that spent a considerable sum to clean up a site that is being used for the development of retirement housing. The firm is assisting the client in recovering cleanup costs from the prior property owner.