Environment & Natural Resources

At Williams Mullen, our environmental attorneys understand that clients want practical, cost-effective solutions, not reasons why something can’t be done. Our goal is to uncomplicate things and make them work. We do that by combining a thorough understanding of our client's business with a comprehensive knowledge of environmental and natural resources law and a familiarity with the regulators and their procedures. 

Our environmental and natural resources practice takes us before federal, state and local agencies across a wide variety of subject areas covering permitting, compliance and enforcement defense, regulatory and policy development and advocacy, and appeals of agency decisions to administrative law judges and the courts. We represent clients before the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, as well as various state and local agencies with jurisdiction over environmental and natural resources.

As a result, our environmental attorneys have well over a hundred years of combined experience on an extensive array of matters. For example, we have represented:

• Manufacturers in obtaining air and water permits, including PSD, Title V, and NPDES, and in Clean Air and Clean Water Act compliance and enforcement issues.
• Fortune 500 companies in prosecuting and defending litigation concerning environmental liabilities, including CERCLA cost recovery and contribution actions and contract actions involving complex indemnity agreements.
• A large local government in permitting a 1,100 acre regional water supply reservoir project and in other water supply permitting and planning efforts.
• A major municipal water supplier in the sale of surplus water supplies to regional customers.
• A major municipal sanitary sewer system in defending inspections and enforcement actions by federal and state agencies for sanitary sewer overflows and development of related corrective action plans for major infrastructure and operational improvements.
• Manufacturers, local governments and solid waste companies in the permitting, closure and post-closure care of solid and hazardous waste landfills.
• Real estate developers, investors and lenders in numerous Brownfields projects, including a 330-acre former rail yard in Alexandria, Virginia.
• Manufacturers and landowners in investigating and remediating contamination under CERCLA (including at numerous NPL sites), RCRA corrective action, and state voluntary cleanup programs.
• Clients charged with criminal violations of environmental laws.
• Insurers and policyholders in environmental insurance coverage disputes and in manuscripting environmental insurance policies.
• Real estate developers in obtaining federal and state wetland permits.
• Clients in the development and approval of wetland and stream mitigation banks and nutrient credit banks and to negotiate purchase of such credits from such banks.
• Companies and lenders in connection with environmental due diligence and the negotiation and drafting of transaction agreements.
• Clients in connection with environmental audits and voluntary disclosures under federal and state audit policies.

Williams Mullen also assists clients with the growing legal challenges and economic opportunities in the renewable energy arena. Our attorneys have extensive experience in permitting, development and compliance issues associated with renewable energy projects. Our work has covered utility and small-scale solar, battery energy supply systems, onshore and offshore wind, biomass and waste-to-energy projects, and we have the knowledge to help bring them to fruition.

Let us work with you. Our goal is to be a trusted advisor and member of your team.