Regulatory Negotiations Support

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Negotiations with federal and state regulators are often key to project success. Facilities undergoing remediation require permits and government approval for discharge and cleanup activities. Governmental regulations, policies and permitting processes are complex, often requiring multiple levels of government approval. In some cases, it is unclear which government agency is responsible for issuing permits and approvals. In other cases, the agency responsible is simply unwilling to consider alternative standards and cleanup models, and need to be encouraged to accept new, more aggressive approaches.

Over the duration of the remedial activities, existing regulatory obligations (e.g., orders, permits, etc.) will terminate, and a property owner or other responsible party has the obligation to submit new permit applications. Frequently this process is onerous and can be fraught with uncertainty. Regulatory officials can often use these occasions to change the cleanup standards and monitoring requirements, increasing the cost of the environmental program.

Premier specializes in challenging agencies that are attempting to create more burdensome requirements. Premier has been successful in not only preventing increased requirements but in negotiating more reasonable requirements. Furthermore, with appropriate planning, opportunities to change an existing permit can lead to beneficial modifications that put a project on a path to reduced costs and toward obtaining a "no further action" designation.

Premier has provided high-level regulatory negotiation support to clients under numerous federal and state programs. Premier's broad experience in numerous regulatory arenas allows it to effectively negotiate with these agencies on the client's behalf. Areas of specific expertise include:

  • CERCLA (Federal Superfund)
  • Federal Natural Resource Damage Assessment
  • RCRA (Federal permitting and corrective action)
  • State Superfund/Voluntary Programs (e.g. Georgia HSRA, Tennessee VRP, Mississippi DEQ, Illinois SRP, Ohio VRP, Washington MTCA, California Regional Water Quality Control Board)
  • State underground storage tank programs

Premier's professionals also have experience negotiating in all of the U.S. EPA regions and with numerous state and interstate agencies. As a result, we are capable of interacting effectively on a client's behalf in all regulatory and geographic environments.

Regulatory Negotiation Support Staff

Shawn Severn, Senior Vice-President

Expertise: site characterization; remediation; business analysis of impaired properties; environmental litigation; expert testimony; CERCLA, RCRA, TSCA, SWA, and state programs.

Dr. Shawn Severn is a Senior Vice President and Principal with Premier's Las Vegas office. Prior to joining Premier, Dr. Severn was a Principal with Exponent's Environmental Group and Director of Exponent's Los Angeles office. Dr. Severn is a scientist with 22 years of experience in industrial and environmental consulting. His business and environmental management experience has been instrumental in developing and implementing strategies to maximize the economic return from environmentally impaired assets such as brownfields. Dr. Severn has provided strategic planning, data collection, review, and analysis support to attorneys involved in environmental litigation matters. He has also provided expert witness testimony in cases involving environmental impacts.

Timothy Goist, East Regional Manager

Expertise: Hazardous waste assessments; conceptual evaluation of remedial alternatives; development of regulatory strategy; litigation support and expert testimony; agency negotiation; remedial design and implementation; Phase I/Phase II Environmental Site Assessments; environmental training; financial management; and industrial real estate environmental assessments.

Mr. Goist manages the East region for Premier. In addition to his management role, Mr. Goist is responsible for lead project management on a number of projects for various clients. Mr. Goist has seventeen years professional experience with over fourteen years technical experience on major industrial projects as well as commercial projects, providing numerous Phase I environmental liability assessments, geologic and hydrogeologic assessments, innovative in-situ remediation projects, multi-media environmental compliance audits for large industrial and government facilities, and extensive experience in acquisition of ground water, soil, sediment, surface water, wastewater, sludge and miscellaneous waste samples for environmental testing and analysis. Mr. Goist is registered as professional Geologist in the state of Georgia, South Carolina and Florida.

Regulatory Negotiation Case Studies

Redevelopment of a Former Manufacturing Plant in Memphis Tennessee

Situation

The owner of a former manufacturing plant in Tennessee was experiencing severe cost pressures during an effort to address environmental concerns associated with the plant's former operations. The property, which has been transferred to another party, was slated to be redeveloped into a life-skills and golf training facility. Regulatory negotiations and technical requirements were forcing the client into a much more expensive remediation program focused on achieving residential cleanup standards and offsite treatment and disposal.

Solution

Premier was retained by the client to assist in regulatory negotiations. Premier was able to negotiate realistic land use assumptions and requirements through the implementation of land use restrictions. This achievement allowed a much more cost-effective remediation plan focused on in-place closure and encapsulation of potentially hazardous materials.

Results

Premier was able to reduce the expected $8,000,000 remediation project to one costing only $1,500,000-a savings of approximately $6,500,000.

Northwest Wood Treating Facility Stormwater Management

Situation

Premier's client was in a difficult situation. Stormwater was inundating its utility pole manufacturing facility in Washington State and there was no practical way to handle it due to the constraints put on the facility by regulators. Due to the presence of spawning coho and chum salmon, cutthroat trout and other fish species, the location had been classified as a protected watershed area

Solutions

Premier was retained by the client to solve the regulatory and technical impasse. Premier led negotiations to build a consensus among the affected parties: the City; the State Department of Ecology; and the USEPA. These successful negotiations allowed the client to enter into an SWDP permitting process to enable them to discharge stormwater into an infiltration gallery following treatment.

During these negotiations, Premier also led the engineering effort to handle the immediate problem of excess storm water on the facility. The acute storm water issues were resolved by installing a cost effective pilot system that allowed the excess water to be treated and discharged. Premier lead the design effort for the full scale treatment system and constructed a permanent storm water treatment system with a treatment capacity of up to nine million gallons of water per month.

Results

Premier was able to resolve the short term regulatory and technical situation that threatened to shut down production at the facility, and created a long-term, cost effective solution for the client's storm water treatment issues.