Litigation Support
Real Estate and Due Diligence
Confidential Insurance Archeology®
Litigation Support
Confidential Central Valley Town, California
Site Technical Coordinator to the City Manager and City Attorney responsible for project deliverables, data collection, data synthesis and presentation, and participation in project strategy sessions and public forums. As the lead environmental consultant to the City of Lodi on federal and administrative cases associated with the impact of chlorinated solvents to the city's drinking water supply, we have successfully streamlined the process of collecting, assimilating, summarizing and presenting data from over 175 PRPs.
Contaminated Property Transactions of locations throughout the United States.
Client manager and project lead on numerous venture capital projects involving the purchase of contaminated properties. EnviroForensics® has been responsible for finding the projects, bringing together the prospective sellers and purchasers, working with owners and their legal counsel to conduct site due diligence, site investigation, and site cleanup activities. Conducts technical and fact finding research to develop project upside.
Global Insurance Recovery, National Program.
Lead forensic and fact-finding expert on a global insurance litigation associated with test cases from sites located throughout the United States. The project involved collecting information from all of the manufacturing facilities, evaluating the existing soil and groundwater conditions, identifying significant spills and releases which have impacted the environment, identifying key witnesses, reviewing depositions, and assisting counsel in the technical issues and presentation of the case. Additional work involves the analysis of damages associated with environmental releases.
Innocent Landowners of locations throughout United States.
Lead technical and forensic expert on numerous contaminated properties that are owned by corporations, LLC’s and LLP’s that have not contributed to the environmental impact. The projects have involved evaluating the existing soil and groundwater conditions, the identification of responsible parties, collecting historical site information (e.g. waste handling practices, building plans, regulatory records), identifying key witnesses, and assisting legal counsel in building and supporting the technical merits of a case. The litigation would force the responsible parties to cleanup the site. These efforts thereby maximize the value of the property while minimizing our clients out of pocket expenses and reducing their liability and exposure.
Guntert & Zimmerman Company, Stockton, California.
EnviroForensics® was responsible for evaluating site conditions, negotiating with redevelopment and regulatory agencies, and preparing and evaluating remedial alternatives at a former shipyard. EnviroForensics® characterized the soil and groundwater conditions at the site and successfully developed a plan that utilized a risk based cleanup approach. In addition, EnviroForensics® provided forensic support during the successful insurance recovery litigation.
Real Estate and Due Diligence
Contaminated Property Transactions, Locations throughout the United States
Project manager and project lead on numerous venture capital projects involving the purchase of contaminated properties. Responsible for finding the projects, bringing together the prospective sellers and purchasers, working with legal counsel to conduct site due diligence, conducting site investigation and cleanup activities, and conducting technical and fact finding research to develop project upside. Projects have included: purchasing notes from financial institutions, shifting the liability and cleanup costs to past owner/operators or other PRPs, brownfields redevelopment, and the straight purchasing and cleanup of contaminated property.
Confidential Clients, North America
Project Management on numerous audits involving identifying potential liabilities and future risks associated with a subject property as a result of environmental impairments. Prepared assessments of the current and past land uses, environmental conditions of the property, environmental compliance history, current and past chemical uses and storage on-site, current and past underground storage tanks, corrective measures taken for past release incidents, and current and past wastes generated at the property.
Fleet and Industrial Supply Center, Alameda Facility/Alameda Annex, Alameda, California
Remedial Investigation/Feasibility Study Project Manager for technical and financial management of a 46-task, 2.5-million dollar Remedial Investigation and Feasibility Study (RI/FS). The RI/FS tasks include geophysical investigations, soil gas study, shallow and deep groundwater well program, stormwater system investigation, hydrogeologic evaluation for aquifer characterization, investigation-derived waste management and disposal, feasibility study, baseline human health risk assessment, ecological assessment, interim remedial action, radiological survey, site control measures, groundwater sampling program, and community relations. The US Navy used this project as an example of their expedited contracting process.
Confidential Client, Charlotte, North Carolina
Technical Lead/Project Manager for the Preliminary Assessment and Site Inspection (PA/SI) of a former US Navy anti-aircraft munitions manufacturing facility. The facility had extensive VOC and metals contamination of the shallow and deep aquifer resulting from past disposal practices. The lateral and vertical extent of groundwater contamination was defined and sources were traced back to past US Navy manufacturing facility activities. This report was used a basis for cost recovery actions against the former property owners as well as the initial investigation for the RI/FS work required for site closure.
Former Lumber Mill, Crescent City, California
EnviroForensics® was brought in to work with a bankruptcy trustee, their legal counsel and a bankruptcy court to characterize the environmental conditions of a former lumber mill, assess natural resource damages to an esturine environment, and to develop a risk-based closure. The goal was to facilitate the sale and transfer of the former mill to the City for use as a wastewater treatment facility.
EnviroForensics® worked with legal counsel to locate historical insurance policies that were used to fund: Onsite and offsite environmental investigations, to obtain a defense that required investigations, to obtain a defense that required investigative work with regulatory agencies, and to identify other parties that may have caused or contributed to the environmental conditions, in order to evaluate the associated risks to the site and the surrounding esturine environment. EnviroForensics® utilized a sophisticated mix of scientists, risk managers, insurance archeologists, property transfer specialists, and risk assumption insurance products to support legal counsels' strategy in an effort to resolve one of the longest bankruptcies in California's history by facilitating successful transfer of the contaminated property and impaired liability. The technical investigation has focused primarily on dioxins that threaten marine habitat and have been found miles from the site. The investigation has been further complicated by varying regulatory actions being undertaken by the federal government on some properties and by the state government on others. Multiple sources may have contributed to the environmental risks, including other mills and aerial dispersion associated with the historic burning of wood waste. To date, the former lumber company's insurance carrier has funded the investigation. EnviroForensics® ' approach has been to work with the insurance carriers to identify other responsible parties that may have caused or contributed to the contamination. The end goal is to restore the property and obtain risk assurances so that a buyer can operate the property without fear of being pulled into the historical liability. To bring closure to this long standing problem and resolve the bankruptcy, EnviroForensics® is working to protect policyholders and carriers from future exposure to liability.
The final remedy will allow for the City to utilize this long abandoned property to build and operate a wastewater treatment facility. This final end use of the property is a true “Brownfield” success featuring the use of a blighted property for the betterment of a coastal community.
Insurance Archeology
Browning-Ferris Industries (Houston, Texas)
Located and retrieved evidence of general and excess liability insurance policies for approximately 1,000 waste hauling companies acquired by second largest waste hauling company in the world, Browning-Ferris Industries. These policies and assorted insurance documents provided the bases for some 200 claims at landfills throughout the United States.
Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (Springfield, Illinois)
Conducted insurance archeology and PRP search for parties that owned, operated, transported, stored or disposed of waste material at five orphan sites in Illinois. Follow-up work requested by the EPA included a detailed evaluation of one site to locate historical insurance for cost recovery purposes.
Y.S.I., Inc. (Yellow Springs, Ohio)
Located and retrieved evidence of general and excess liability insurance policies on behalf of medical instrument manufacturer responding to state action involving alleged contamination of soil and groundwater. Evidence of general liability insurance for policy periods from 1958 through 1985 provided corporate counsel with needed basis to support successful claims negotiations with several insurance carriers.
College Cleaners (Chico, California)
Located and retrieved general liability insurance evidence for former dry cleaner in response to state action regarding alleged soil and groundwater contamination. Evidence of insurance for 1981 policy period provided basis for insurance claim and defense obligation by insurer.
Jim's One-Hour Cleaners (Terra Haute, Indiana)
Located and retrieved general liability insurance evidence for dry cleaner in response to state action regarding alleged soil and groundwater contamination. Policies and secondary evidence of coverage for policy periods from 1973 to 1997 provided the basis for successful claims with three different insurers.
St. Vincent de Paul Society (Eugene, Oregon)
Located and retrieved general liability insurance evidence for property owner responding to state action regarding alleged soil and groundwater contamination from leaking underground storage tanks. Report depicting interrelationship of insurance policies issued to the property owner for policy periods from 1976 to 1988 provided the basis for a successful claim.
Kolln Property (Longview, Washington)
Located and retrieved evidence of former owner's general and excess liability insurance as part of due diligence incident to purchase of real estate by a hospital trust. Insurance documents provided basis for successful transaction.
Hartling Management, Inc. (Muncie, Indiana)
Located and retrieved general liability insurance evidence for former dry cleaner in response to state action regarding alleged soil and groundwater contamination. Evidence of insurance for 1981 policy period provided basis for insurer defense obligation and joint defense with another PRP at this site.
Meridian Landfill (Fortville, Indiana)
Conducted exhaustive search for policies to defend property owner against claims asserted by the State for abatement of hazardous constituents present in soil and groundwater beneath local landfills. In addition to CGL policies, located homeowner policies that were used to provide a defense from insurance carriers.
Drum Reconditioning and Chemical Distribution Facility (Rhode Island)
Conducted successful search for historical CGL policies on behalf of corporate counsel to provide defense against State claims.
