Concentration

Summary

With respect to environmental counseling, Mr. Seitz regularly advises clients regarding the myriad regulatory and permitting issues associated with hazardous waste generation, treatment, storage and disposal; the corrective action requirements for hazardous waste facilities and underground storage tanks; wastewater discharges from various types of industrial operations; and the manufacture and import/export of chemical substances. Much of this work has involved analysis of regulatory matters confronting the owners and operators of oil and gas exploration and production facilities, pipelines, refineries, petrochemical facilities, manufacturers of industrial and consumer products and electric generating plants.

Mr. Seitz counsels owners and operators of major development projects such as natural gas and oil pipelines, coal- and gas-fired power plants, petrochemical manufacturing facilities, hydroelectric projects and wastewater treatment plants in obtaining the requisite governmental permits and approvals for these projects under the federal Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act, the National Environmental Policy Act and related state and local programs. As part of these activities, he has helped a wide range of clients in defending their environmental permits against challenges by environmental and citizens' groups through the administrative and judicial appeals process, and has provided substantial legal advice and comments on statutory/regulatory proposals and requirements involving hydraulic fracturing, horizontal well-drilling and other oil and gas development matters. He also has effectively contested numerous governmental enforcement actions and penalty assessments involving these types of facilities in administrative and judicial proceedings.

Mr. Seitz additionally provides clients with significant assistance and advice regarding specific health and safety regulatory compliance and enforcement matters involving the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration's general industry standards for Process Safety Management, Hazard Communication, Hazardous Waste Operations and Emergency Action Plans, among others. Through this work, he has assisted clients with assessing their compliance with particular OSHA standards, worked with OSHA experts to develop improved compliance programs for individual facilities and participated in several detailed assessments of a corporation's PSM compliance and performance. In this regard, he has provided specific advice on PSM matters associated with several industrial accidents and near-miss incidents.

In connection with his regulatory practice, Mr. Seitz has provided substantive advice on and performed numerous environmental and health and safety audits and has assisted clients with the implementation of corporate environmental and health and safety management systems. In fact, through his assistance several of his clients have achieved third-party registration under the ISO 14001 international standard for environmental management systems, and he has assisted other companies with the implementation EHS programs under RC14001, RCMS and the ANSI/AIHA Z10 standard. He also has helped numerous companies prepare voluntary environmental audit disclosures to federal and state agencies under applicable audit laws/policies, which have resulted in substantial waivers of civil penalty liability.

In addition to his regulatory counseling experience, Mr. Seitz represents clients in environmental litigation and toxic tort cases in both state and federal court, including environmental cost recovery and contribution actions under the federal Superfund law and state analogs, leaking underground storage tank cases and actions by federal and state agencies to enforce environmental requirements.

A significant portion of Mr. Seitz's litigation experience has involved complex environmental cleanup matters. This work has ranged from assisting companies regarding innovative "liability transfer" projects and contractual allocation disputes involving contaminated properties, to providing counsel on the rigorous closure, post-closure and corrective action requirements for RCRA sites, to representing responsible parties in satisfying their remediation obligations imposed by the federal government under the federal Superfund program.

Mr. Seitz also has assisted numerous facilities in completing environmental cleanups, negotiating with government regulators and achieving liability releases pursuant to various state voluntary cleanup and/or underground storage tank programs, including those established in Virginia, Maryland, the District of Columbia, Connecticut, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Texas.

Representative Engagements

• International consumer products company – defense in a multimillion-dollar Clean Water Act enforcement action by the U.S. Justice Department in which the government sought to require that the client pay for the cleanup of contaminated river sediments, ultimately resulting in a settlement for less than 10 percent of the government's initial claim
• U.S. mining company – defended mining company in litigation to resolve multi-billion dollar environmental cost recovery and natural resource damage claims by federal/state governments in federal bankruptcy court
• Privately held company – advice and assistance with the sale of natural gas gathering facilities, processing plants, compressor stations and associated pipeline assets
• Northeastern U.S. pipeline company– provided legal advice and regulatory assistance for the relevant environmental requirements for a natural gas pipeline expansion project in New York, including water quality certification/conditions, stormwater permitting/management, environmental restoration and related matters
• U.S. specialty chemicals manufacturer – regulatory counseling on obligations under applicable OSHA standards; assistance with a PSM audit and development of appropriate corrective measures
• Several energy company clients – analysis of federal/state environmental reviews, wetlands jurisdiction and permitting issues and other environmental permit requirements and related governmental reviews/approvals for major new pipeline projects
• Major petrochemical services company – advice on a wide range of complex, sophisticated regulatory
• issues involving the interpretation of the federal Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) requirements for the generation, treatment, storage and/or disposal of hazardous waste