Environmental Emergency Response Team

Environmental Emergencies present serious and unique liability and public relations issues for businesses. Businesses should not wait until the Environmental Emergency occurs before locating and associating experienced counsel. Having that counsel in place beforehand can be invaluable in responding quickly and efficiently to the myriad of issues that can arise out of an Environmental Emergency.

Our Environmental Emergency Response Team has years of successful experience with various forms of Environmental Emergencies and related alleged personal injuries and property damages including:

• Explosions at petroleum and chemical facilities. 
• Chemical fires at operating facilities and related storage units.
• Railcar and other transportation chemical releases resulting from accidents. 
• Leaking petroleum and natural gas pipelines and storage facilities. 
• Discovery of contaminated drinking water at facilities and surrounding commercial and residential areas that utilize impacted groundwater sources.
• Unpermitted air emissions that impact surrounding properties and residents.
• Vapor intrusion issues arising from contaminated soil and groundwater.

The Team is well versed in the regulatory and litigation issues that often arise out of Environmental Emergencies. Our experience includes: 

• Advising on regulatory compliance and reporting 
• Organizing responses to multiple regulatory investigations by federal and state agencies 
• Assisting in responding to criminal investigations by federal and state authorities 
• Evaluating and pursuing insurance coverage and contractual liability allocation 
• Preparing for potential Toxic Tort Litigation (including Class Actions) or Environmental Litigation

As Environmental Emergencies virtually always involve significant media attention, we coordinate our efforts with our Strategic Communications Team to provide a rapid and appropriate response to media inquiries.

Members of the Environmental Emergency Team have served as environmental emergency response counsel to various companies. Some of those engagements have covered numerous facilities distributed across multiple states.