Services Superfund

Kean Miller has more than three decades of experience representing clients in complex matters brought CERCLA and RCRA, and similar matters pursued under state law. Kean Miller’s goal is to provide our clients with cost-efficient strategies to obtain final remedies and financial certainty.

Kean Miller represents potentially responsible parties (PRPs), including owners, operators, and generators, at both single-party and multi-party sites. Kean Miller serves as common counsel for PRP groups and represent individual PRPs and groups presenting common issues, such as de minimis parties, in both administrative and judicial enforcement actions brought by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), the U.S. Department of the Interior, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and state agencies including the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality (LDEQ) and the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ).

Kean Miller’s extensive experience and longstanding relationships with regulatory agencies across the country provide a distinct advantage in addressing the complex legal and factual issues that arise in Superfund matters. Kean Miller has also recovered millions of dollars from other PRPs to fund cleanup activities on behalf of our PRP group clients. Kean Miller’s team offers a pragmatic, results-oriented approach to cost allocation and settlement negotiations that reduces uncertainty and protects our clients’ interests in high-stakes environmental liability matters.

Representative Experience

• Successful negotiation on behalf of a PRP group as common counsel of final remedies at the federal and state level, including having hazardous waste delisted for a final remedy that allowed PRPs to discharge their responsibilities in connection with a site.
• Representation of PRPs in state superfund sites including: Tate Cove Site; D.L. Mud Site; Marco of Iota Site; Dutchtown Refinery Site; Shoreline Refinery Site; TH Agriculture & Nutrition Site; Episcopal Housing Authority Site; Mar Services Site; R&K Creosote Site; Rab Valley Site (Oklahoma).
• Representation of PRPs in mediation with the U.S. EPA, NOAA and TNRCC involving the Tex Tin Site, Texas City, Texas.
• Representation of a global rubber and chemical client, a tire company and a steel company before the state agencies regarding the Petro-Processors Superfund Site.
• Common counsel for the PRP Group at the Gulf Coast Vacuum Site (GCVS) which resulted in the EPA revising the Record of Decision (ROD) to change the remedy from incineration to an in-situ remedy resulting in a savings of millions of dollars. Kean Miller’s representation of the GCVS PRP Group included assistance with contracting, access agreements, escrow accounts, and other issues.
• Representation of chemical clients in the Combustion, Inc. litigation. This litigation was a class action suit involving over 9,900 plaintiffs in connection with alleged exposure from the Combustion, Inc. “Superfund” site.
• Common counsel for the Bayou Sorrel Superfund Site PRP group and, subsequently, Bayou Sorrel Steering Committee in connection with the Bayou Sorrel Superfund Site. As a result of Kean Miller’s representation, EPA headquarters changed its internal policy to allow PRP groups to undertake RI/FS without the necessity of committing to the RD/RA. Kean Miller’s representation of the PRP groups of the Bayou Sorrel Superfund Site included representation through the following stages: RI/FS, RD/RA, cost recovery claims, comments on the ROD, negotiation of the remedy selection, negotiation of the consent decree, establishment of trust, negotiation of remedial RD/RA contracts, operation and maintenance (O&M), and site de-listing.
• Representation of a major chemical client regarding a “Superfund nominated site”, where over 2,000 neighbors alleged property damage and personal injury exposure from ground water migration and air contamination.
• Representation of a major forest products client and an oil and gas client regarding a PAB Oil Superfund Site.
• Representation of a major chemical client in a class action case involving alleged ground and air exposure to toxic substances from a pesticide and herbicide mixing plant.
• Representation of a global energy client regarding the 51 Oil Superfund Site. Kean Miller represented the client in a property damage claim related to NORM contamination.
• Representation of paper company client in a multi-billion-dollar environmental civil penalty action brought by Harris County, Texas under the Texas Water Code, relating to an active “Superfund” site.