Poyner Spruill LLP provides a complete range of environmental law services including compliance counseling, site selection and permitting advice, risk evaluation and minimization mechanisms in land development and property transfers, and administrative and civil litigation.

The subject matter of Poyner Spruill's environmental law practice routinely includes the following principal statutes and their State and federal implementing regulations:

  • the Clean Air Act
  • the Federal Water Pollution Control Act, including wetlands and other Clean Water Act issues
  • the Oil Pollution Act
  • the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA/Superfund), including the Community Planning and Emergency Right-to-Know Act
  • the Solid Waste Disposal Act, including the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA)
  • the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA)
  • the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA)
  • the North Carolina Oil Pollution and Hazardous Substances Control Act
  • the North Carolina Inactive Sites Act
  • the North Carolina Coastal Area Management Act
  • the North Carolina Dry-Cleaning Solvent Contamination and Cleanup Act (DSCA)

In addition to representation under these statutes, lawyers in the environmental law section at Poyner Spruill LLP regularly provide clients with counseling in general environmental risk management, tax relief based upon environmental conditions and activities, relations with technical environmental professionals, and other environmentally related daily concerns.

Full litigation services are available to Poyner Spruill LLP clients in the federal and State courts and before regulatory agencies on any environmental issue, including: permitting litigation and enforcement issues; citizens’ suits; financial responsibility for removal and remedial actions; compliance with hazardous waste, toxic substance, and underground storage tank requirements; air and noise pollution; coastal, estuarine, and river basin development; environmental impact documentation; and related land use issues.

Poyner Spruill's environmental law attorneys combine decades of experience in private practice, but they have also served in numerous federal and state government agencies, including the U.S. Department of Energy, the North Carolina Department of Environment and Natural Resources, the North Carolina Department of Justice, the North Carolina Division of Waste Management, and the North Carolina Low-Level Radioactive Waste Management Authority. This additional experience enables the firm’s environmental lawyers to provide practical advice not only on the rule-based mechanisms of government regulation but on the less obvious trends and currents involved in that process, as well.

Poyner Spruill's environmental attorneys publish the widely read North Carolina Environmental Law Letter on a monthly basis, and frequently provide written commentary and conduct environmental law programs for clients and other North Carolina attorneys.

Poyner Spruill LLP strives for excellence in practice and is structured for flexibility to meet the always changing face of environmental law. When appropriate, our work is conducted through task groups that draw upon attorneys from other sections of our Business Department and Litigation Department. When needed, the full resources of our interdisciplinary practice can be focused on the specific opportunity or problem facing your company.