environmental law - jw

San Antonio112 E. Pecan StreetSuite 2400San Antonio, Texas 78205

210.978.7700

Environmental LawKnowledge. Experience. Relationships. Solutions.

Environmental Law Knowledge. Experience. Relationships. Solutions.

Legal disputes. Compliance headaches. Legislative

roadblocks. Permitting nightmares. Running a

business with an environmental impact can get very

complicated, very quickly.

We can help.

We know the ins and outs – not only of local, state, and federal environmental laws, but also of the various regulatory agencies and commissions in Texas and their policies and procedures.

We’ve handled environmental law issues for decades, and we’re still at the forefront of the latest innovations in the law. We have expertise in cutting-edge issues like carbon regulation and climate change as well as old standards like water quality and hazardous waste.

We have strong and long-standing working and personal relationships with key decision-makers at administrative agencies and the state legislature.

We solve problems. Our team of seasoned environmental attorneys creates solutions to complicated issues, leaving our clients free to focus on running – and growing – their businesses.

We SolveProblems.

AustinDallasFort WorthHoustonSan AngeloSan Antonio

www.jw.com

With innovative ideas and creative

solutions, our attorneys guide clients

as they navigate the ever-changing

landscape of environmental law.

Environmental Law Knowledge. Experience. Relationships. Solutions.

Legal disputes. Compliance headaches. Legislative

roadblocks. Permitting nightmares. Running a

business with an environmental impact can get very

complicated, very quickly.

We can help.

We know the ins and outs – not only of local, state, and federal environmental laws, but also of the various regulatory agencies and commissions in Texas and their policies and procedures.

We’ve handled environmental law issues for decades, and we’re still at the forefront of the latest innovations in the law. We have expertise in cutting-edge issues like carbon regulation and climate change as well as old standards like water quality and hazardous waste.

We have strong and long-standing working and personal relationships with key decision-makers at administrative agencies and the state legislature.

We solve problems. Our team of seasoned environmental attorneys creates solutions to complicated issues, leaving our clients free to focus on running – and growing – their businesses.

We SolveProblems.

AustinDallasFort WorthHoustonSan AngeloSan Antonio

www.jw.com

With innovative ideas and creative

solutions, our attorneys guide clients

as they navigate the ever-changing

landscape of environmental law.

Knowledge.

Environmental Law

The success of our clients depends on our ability to maintain strong and trusted relationships with key decision-makers at administrative agencies and the Legislature.

We’ve been engaged in Texas politics since the early 1900s, and our involvement has continued throughout our firm’s history, with several of our partners regularly involved in legislative initiatives.

Our current team of attorneys has over 100 years of combined experience practicing before regulatory agencies and the Texas Legislature and includes former state attorneys from the Legislature, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, the Railroad Commission of Texas, and the Texas Attorney General’s Office.

For detailed information on these areas of law

and our experience, please visit www.jw.com

We know state government and the people who make it work. Our experience and relationships protect and advance the interests of our clients in their business endeavors.

Our current team of attorneys has over 100 years of combined experience practicing before regulatory agencies and the Texas Legislature.

Air QualityCarbon ManagementFuels and Fleet RegulationsWater QualityWater Rights and GroundwaterSpecial Districts and Water UtilitiesEndangered Species and Natural ResourcesWetlands and CWA Section 404Solid and Hazardous WasteUnderground Injection WellsBrownfields and Voluntary CleanupsEnergy DevelopmentAdministrative HearingsCompliance and EnforcementEnvironmental Due Diligence and Risk AssessmentEnvironmental LitigationToxic Tort

Coal, Gas, and Nuclear Power GenerationMining and ReclamationRenewable EnergyBiodiesel and Advanced BiofuelsBioEnergySolar PowerWind PowerIndustrial ManufacturingCAFOs and AgricultureFertilizer and Pesticide Processing, Handling and StorageReal Estate Development and BrownfieldsAggregates, Concrete, and Cement ManufacturingSteel Manufacturing and Recycling

Our Specific Areas of Knowledge

Industries We Serve

Relationships.Unlike other large law firms, we have integrated our environmental and legislative practices into one cooperative group. This ensures that our attorneys are aware of and directly involved with emerging environmental policies at the Legislature and are well equipped to proactively address client issues. For our clients, this means full notice of issues before it is too late to effect change and no surprises on the legislative or regulatory fronts.

In short, we know state government and the people who make it work. Our experience and relationships protect and advance the interests of our clients in their business endeavors.

Knowledge.

Environmental Law

The success of our clients depends on our ability to maintain strong and trusted relationships with key decision-makers at administrative agencies and the Legislature.

We’ve been engaged in Texas politics since the early 1900s, and our involvement has continued throughout our firm’s history, with several of our partners regularly involved in legislative initiatives.

Our current team of attorneys has over 100 years of combined experience practicing before regulatory agencies and the Texas Legislature and includes former state attorneys from the Legislature, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, the Railroad Commission of Texas, and the Texas Attorney General’s Office.

For detailed information on these areas of law

and our experience, please visit www.jw.com

We know state government and the people who make it work. Our experience and relationships protect and advance the interests of our clients in their business endeavors.

Our current team of attorneys has over 100 years of combined experience practicing before regulatory agencies and the Texas Legislature.

Air QualityCarbon ManagementFuels and Fleet RegulationsWater QualityWater Rights and GroundwaterSpecial Districts and Water UtilitiesEndangered Species and Natural ResourcesWetlands and CWA Section 404Solid and Hazardous WasteUnderground Injection WellsBrownfields and Voluntary CleanupsEnergy DevelopmentAdministrative HearingsCompliance and EnforcementEnvironmental Due Diligence and Risk AssessmentEnvironmental LitigationToxic Tort

Coal, Gas, and Nuclear Power GenerationMining and ReclamationRenewable EnergyBiodiesel and Advanced BiofuelsBioEnergySolar PowerWind PowerIndustrial ManufacturingCAFOs and AgricultureFertilizer and Pesticide Processing, Handling and StorageReal Estate Development and BrownfieldsAggregates, Concrete, and Cement ManufacturingSteel Manufacturing and Recycling

Our Specific Areas of Knowledge

Industries We Serve

Relationships.Unlike other large law firms, we have integrated our environmental and legislative practices into one cooperative group. This ensures that our attorneys are aware of and directly involved with emerging environmental policies at the Legislature and are well equipped to proactively address client issues. For our clients, this means full notice of issues before it is too late to effect change and no surprises on the legislative or regulatory fronts.

In short, we know state government and the people who make it work. Our experience and relationships protect and advance the interests of our clients in their business endeavors.

Environmental Law

Solutions.

For the owner of a large poultry egg operation, we success-fully obtained a new TPDES water quality permit for the operation, following a contested hearing at the State Office of Administrative Hearings. We also successfully defended that permit on appeal.

For a national developer of resort communities, we led a successful effort to obtain a TPDES discharge permit for a new domestic wastewater plant to serve a 3,000-acre golf course resort community in central Texas. The permit was contested by a downstream landowner, and we obtained a unanimous decision from the TCEQ Commissioners deny-ing the hearing request and ordering the issuance of the permit.

NEPA Matters and LitigationWe have represented several mining companies in NEPA-related matters associated with historic NPDES permit-triggered and ongoing 404 Wetlands-triggered NEPA reviews. We have obtained necessary approvals and assisted clients in successfully expanding operations.

We successfully defended a Texas pest eradication agency in federal court NEPA litigation, brought by Texas Rural Legal Aid, alleging that an environmental impact statement was necessary prior to the initiation of a pest eradication program in the Lower Rio Grande Valley.

We successfully defeated class certification and obtained summary judgment against property owners alleging environmental damage from MTBE contamination arising out of a pipeline rupture.

Power Project DevelopmentFor a client acquiring a 300 MW coal-fired power genera-tion facility, we evaluated environmental liabilities prior to the acquisition, developed a strategy for an environmental audit under the Texas Environmental Audit Act, considered groundwater availability issues, and evaluated alternative fuel uses. We also assisted this client with all permitting and permit transfer considerations in acquisition of the assets, and prepared and filed all applicable PUCT and ERCOT registrations.

We represented a large generator of wind power, assisting with and advising on lease and option agreements, substa-tion, transmission and access easements, air rights, shared use agreements, surface use agreements, sub-easements, and other related title and environmental issues.

We assisted a Texas-based utility in prudence reviews of a nuclear power plant investment and long-term purchased power contracts. Our representation included review and analysis of the prudence of that company’s decisions regarding construction of a nuclear power plant and a deter-mination of how that nuclear investment would be treated in the utility’s rates.

Legislative InitiativesDuring recent legislative sessions, on behalf of power generation and technology interests, our attorneys assisted in the drafting and passage of several pieces of legislation, the net result of which is the most comprehensive financial and regulatory incentive package in the nation for new electric power generation technology and related carbon dioxide storage projects, including enhanced oil recovery projects.

Our attorneys have also been successful in passing targeted legislative initiatives to ease the compliance costs for members of the steel manufacturing and recycling industries, as well as the mining and reclamation industries. We have also been instrumental in drafting and presenting testimony to prevent the passage of measures that would have dramatic, negative impacts on these industries.

Our attorneys have preserved key incentives and developed market protection mechanisms for the biodiesel industry and worked in concert with key statewide elected officials to establish the Texas Bioenergy Policy and Research Councils.

In addition, our attorneys were instrumental in the preservation and extension of key incentive programs essential to the continued growth of the renewable energy industry in Texas. Our attorneys also assisted in the drafting and passage of a first-of-its-kind grant program for electricity storage projects related to renewable energy that could pave the way for utility scale solar energy projects and further expansion of Texas wind energy.

For various clients, we have drafted and assisted in the passage of legislation to create special utility districts, including one of the largest, geographically, in the state.

Air Quality MattersWe have secured air quality permits and permit amendments for electric generation facilities in Texas, and we continue to assist several electric power generation facilities with permit compliance issues and associated testing and reporting obliga-tions. We are currently developing air quality permit applica-tions for new electric generation facilities in Texas.

We have secured state and federal air quality permits, permit amendments, standard permits, and permits by rule for large steel manufacturing and recycling facilities in Texas, including air quality authorizations for ancillary steel fabrication and scrap processing facilities. We continue to assist these facilities with permit compliance issues and associated testing and reporting obligations.

Before EPA and TCEQ, we represented electrical generating industries regarding the implementation of the Clean Air Interstate Rule, the Clean Air Mercury Rule, and the Dallas/Fort Worth and Houston/Galveston State Implemen-tation Plans. This included developing emissions specifica-tions for attainment demonstrations and system cap compli-ance mechanisms.

We represented the owner of a pre-cast concrete plant in Harris County, Texas, on several air quality matters, including a municipal dust ordinance, a civil nuisance action, and a SOAH contested case hearing. We obtained a favorable Proposal of Decision, and the business owner received a Texas New Source Review Permit.

Water Quality MattersBefore the TCEQ, we represented an energy client in water quality matters concerning the proposed listing of the Lake Arlington cooling water body as thermally impaired under Section 303d of the Clean Water Act. We successfully demon-strated that the proposed listing was unnecessary.

For the owner of a new natural gas-fired, combined-cycled power plant, we successfully obtained the initial wastewater discharge permit from TCEQ required to commence operations at the plant. We also served as developer’s counsel for certain regulatory, project financing, and environmental matters, including providing a legal opinion to the lender regarding the developer’s compliance with all applicable state and local environmental permitting and regulatory requirements.

We represented the owner of a major dairy CAFO, located in the environmentally sensitive North Bosque River watershed, in a hotly contested permit hearing, and successfully obtained a new TPDES water quality permit, which allowed our client to continue to operate and expand the dairy.

Experience.

Our attorneys are heavily involved in the industries they serve and fully grasp the complicated issues facing our clients.

How do we solve problems for our clients? First, by combining legal expertise with deep technical knowledge. Our attorneys are heavily involved in the industries they serve and fully grasp the complicated issues facing our clients.

Second, we approach legal issues with innovative techniques. If a problem is unique or complex, we look deeper for creative solutions and advantages others might miss.

Third, we help our clients reach their goals by being proactive. Instead of waiting for problems to arise, we initiate rulemaking proceedings or work with members of the Legislature to pass laws that address environmental regulatory problems before they create hardships for our clients.

And finally, we don’t give up on our clients’ goals. Sometimes the only way to accomplish those goals is to adjudicate the dispute in contested case hearings or through tenacious involvement in formal rulemaking dockets.

In short, we solve problems for our clients by drawing on our knowledge, experience and relationships.

Our environmental group includes more than 15 seasoned and experienced attorneys, each with unique expertise in environmental or regulatory issues. A brief overview of some of our past accomplishments includes: