Waste

Our solid waste clients have included municipalities and municipal authorities, public and private corporations, joint ventures, private businesses and individuals. The types of operations we have been involved with include municipal and residual waste landfills, resource recovery facilities, autoclaves, incinerators, transfer stations and hauling operations. 

Land Air Water Legal Solutions LLC attorneys have extensive experience working as part of solid waste permitting teams in identifying and addressing issues under the regulations, responding to Department technical reviews, negotiating interpretations of the rules and guidance, anticipating and reacting to public concerns and municipality limitations, and challenging unacceptable standards and special conditions of permits, not to mention our involvement in assisting quite a number of facilities facing the PA DEP's Harms/Benefits test. 

As part of these teams, we have been successful in obtaining permits and/or major permit modifications for municipal and residual waste landfills, transfer stations, resource recovery facilities, incinerators and autoclaves. Our involvement has necessarily required an in-depth understanding of the solid waste rules, but also the ability and experience to evaluate the impacts of the many related environmental programs (such as wetlands protection, water management, soil conservation and air pollution control) on the solid waste application, and ensure the proper coordination of permits or approvals at both the state and local levels. 

We have proven experience litigating solid waste issues before adjudicatory bodies, from local zoning hearing boards to the Commonwealth's Environmental Hearing Board to the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania. This litigation experience gives us particular insight and guidance on the many important aspects of the permitting process. Recognizing the cost, time and uncertainty inherent in litigation, this option is always evaluated realistically against other approaches for achieving the client's goals.

In addition to permitting and litigation, we have assisted municipal clients in their development of County Act 101 plans and the adoption of ordinances and the establishment of programs under those plans. We have counseled solid waste operators in their compliance with (or challenges to) other municipal solid waste plans, and have assisted in numerous contract negotiations between landfills and host municipalities and counties, and in contracts for disposal and processing capacity. 

Land Air Water Legal Solutions LLC attorneys help clients in the acquisition and sale of landfills, transfer stations and hauling operations, and have conducted due diligence reviews of other solid waste facilities and operations. We have prepared responses to notices of violation issued by the Department and other regulatory bodies, and have successfully curtailed agency investigations without charges filed. We have attended operations and construction meetings, offering advice regarding the impact of regulations to facility design and operations, and have implemented desired changes through negotiations with the Department. We have also been successful in negotiating and re-negotiating a number of host community agreements with counties and municipalities. 

In rendering advice to our solid waste clients, we analyze not only the intricacies of applicable environmental statutes, regulations and guidance, but integrate that legal intelligence with an acute understanding of the technical, financial, social and political issues involved in permitting and operating their facilities in Pennsylvania. This analysis draws on our experience with solid waste issues and operations, and incorporates, often as importantly, our knowledge of and experience with the decision-makers involved. Our success in this field has included effecting changes to the Department's solid waste program through direct involvement with the Central Office and, indirectly, by working cooperatively with legislative lobbying efforts at both the state and federal level.