Agriculture Industry Representations

In addition to our broad-based environmental expertise, we have extensive experience counseling and representing a variety of agricultural-related businesses and entities in connection with the increasingly complex environmental issues facing the industry today.  Our clients have included farmers, confined animal feeding operations, farming cooperatives, grain elevators, grain processors, ethanol manufacturers, fertilizer manufacturers and agriculture-related trade associations.  Our attorneys offer expertise in every aspect of environmental and natural resources law and our specialists offer scientific and policy expertise to assist in developing effective strategies to deal with the agriculture industry’s  rapidly changing regulatory environment.

Our environmental attorneys and specialists offer expertise in the following areas:

Clean Water Act
NDPES and stormwater permitting; CAFO regulatory issues and enforcement at both the state and federal levels; TDML and non-point source issues; wetlands permitting and enforcement; and water quality standard development issues at the state and federal levels.

Clean Air Act
Permitting and new source review enforcement for grain processing facilities; advising farm operations on air permitting and emissions calculations issues; working with agricultural trade associations on development of  emission factors with EPA; and defense of nuisance claims relating to air emissions.

CERCLA
Issues relating to emissions of hazardous substances, continuous release reporting and spill reporting relating to farm operations and processing facilities; and remediation at grain elevators and fertilizer facilities.

Citizen Suit Claims
Successfully defending agricultural  facilities in connection with environmental citizen suit claims. 

Nuisance/Toxic Tort Claims
Successfully defending agricultural facilities in connection with common law nuisance claims alleging excessive odor and water discharges.

Environmental Management Systems  
Counseling and authorship of publications on developing and implementing effective environmental management systems that are  important to the more complex agricultural operations.

Auditing and self-reporting to EPA 
Counseling and representing grain processing clients in auditing and self-disclosure to EPA so as to eliminate or minimize penalties for ongoing operations.

Protected Species
Counseling numerous large landowners and developers regarding species protection strategies; extensive experience negotiating favorable permitting decisions.

NEPA
Successfully representing and counseling both private and public sector interests on NEPA (and similar state laws) compliance and  policy.  Service with farming and ranching representatives on federal advisory committee on NEPA.

Historic Preservation
Successfully representing and counseling clients in the full range of federal, state and local issues relating to history and historic preservation regulation, including Section 106 consultation with State Historic Preservation Officers ("SHPOs") and Indian tribes, and Section 4(f) regulation of highway and transportation development. 

Facility Siting
Assisting clients with all aspects of new facility planning, including community relations, zoning, land use, historic preservation and permitting issues associated with siting new agriculture facilities.