Remediation of Manufactured Gas Plants

Client:	Gas Distribution Company
Representation:	Real Estate Acquisition and Redevelopment; Voluntary Remediation Projects
Date:	1999 to present
Locations:	Eastern United States

Summary:

Schiff Hardin worked with the client, a gas distribution company, and its environmental consultants to address potential environmental liabilities associated with a former Manufactured Gas Plant (MGP) site located in an upper middle class residential neighborhood in an eastern seaboard state. We negotiated the purchases of the homes and apartment complexes that sat on the former MGP site, and the access agreements with those owners who declined to sell. We also negotiated liability settlements with the property owners. We drafted the restrictive covenants to be recorded on parcels impacted by coal tar operations, and worked with community relations specialists, advising in respect of the delicate community relations issues presented by the site.

Significantly, we took the lead in assessing and addressing the claims of several nearby property owners that the MGP had impacted their properties. In one case, where the property owners brought suit, an early assessment of the lawsuit and the plaintiffs' evidence indicated that the claim might indeed have validity. We asked for and were allowed an opportunity to investigate the plaintiffs' property and discovered that coal tar had indeed migrated onto the property. The company settled the lawsuit by purchasing the property.

Conversely, when the owners of another nearby property (represented by the same law firm) made a facially compelling case that their property had been impacted by operations at the MGP site, we developed the lines of evidence supporting the case that the compounds were likely from historic filling activities and not from the MGP operations. Our client's presentation to the state environmental agency resulted in the state issuing a letter agreeing that the weight of the evidence clearly indicated that the compounds were likely the result of sources other than the MGP.