Environmental

Quarles & Brady’s Environmental Law Group has been representing clients on matters arising under the Clean Water Act since the inception of the modern version of the Act in the early 1970s. In fact, our Environmental Law Group was an outgrowth of the firm’s representation of clients who were on the “front lines” in the early days of the Clean Water Act.

For over 30 years, we have continued to represent clients on cutting-edge issues arising under the Clean Water Act. Over the years, our attorneys have represented clients in a wide array of Clean Water Act matters, including the negotiation of direct and indirect discharge permits, administrative and judicial litigation related to those permits and the defense of governmental and third-party enforcement actions. Whether the matter involves technical details, such as the need for or derivation of water-quality-based effluent limitations, or broader policy concerns, such as responding to water reuse and recycling initiatives, our Environmental Law Group has the experience to efficiently and effectively represent our clients.

Representative Engagements / Experience:

• Obtaining one of the first mercury variances ever approved under the Great Lakes Water Quality Initiative. Prompt approval was obtained from both EPA and state regulatory authorities, allowing a construction project to stay on schedule.
  
  
• Successfully representing a client in seeking modification of its wastewater discharge permit, allowing it to continue to use treated effluent from a local municipal treatment plant as the source of the plant’s cooling water. The project raised complicated legal and technical issues related to the allocation of discharge capacity, but it is touted by state officials as one of the leading examples of innovative water conservation measures.
  
  
• Successfully representing a client in a third-party challenge to a discharge permit for a major construction project. The permit was attacked on a number of grounds, including allegedly deficient permit terms related to anti-degradation requirements, the thermal load and mercury discharges. The challenges were all rejected in administrative and judicial review proceedings.
  
  
• Continued representation of a client on issues related to the determination of “Best Technology Available” for both new and existing water intake structures under both federal and state law.
  
  
• Successfully defending a number of clients from threatened citizen suit actions. In the vast majority of cases, prompt defense action resulted in the suits never being filed.
  
  
• Representing the regulated community’s interests on an number of advisory committees convened by state environmental agencies to implement new regulatory initiatives. Some of the matters addressed by these committees included the development of rules related to the discharge of bio-accumulating chemicals, mercury and chlorides.

For more information on how our Environmental Group can help you address potential or actual environment-related legal and business concerns, please contact Arthur A. Vogel Jr. at (414) 277-5545 or , or your local Quarles & Brady attorney.