Our Environmental Investigations and Remediation Practice is dedicated to helping clients understand, manage, and resolve contamination issues under Superfund (CERCLA), the federal Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), and Florida’s intricate network of state and local environmental laws. We guide owners, developers, lenders, and local governments through every stage of site assessment and cleanup—from initial discovery of contamination, through investigation and remedy selection, to achieving regulatory closure and supporting long-term stewardship. Drawing on approaches used by leading contaminated-site practices, we address liabilities and cleanup obligations under CERCLA, RCRA corrective action, and analogous state programs, helping clients navigate federal and state enforcement, contribution claims, and complex allocation issues.
A hallmark of our practice is the way we integrate legal strategy with sound technical work. We help clients identify and retain qualified environmental consultants, engineers, and contractors; collaborate on technically defensible scopes of work; and rigorously vet proposals and work plans for technical accuracy, legal sufficiency, and regulatory approvability before they are submitted to agencies. Many of our matters involve Florida’s contaminated-site cleanup rules under Chapters 376 and 403, Florida Statutes, which govern pollutant discharge prevention, removal, and environmental control, and the detailed Contaminated Site Cleanup Criteria in Chapter 62-780, Florida Administrative Code (F.A.C.). We review and comment on site assessment reports, risk assessments, remedial action plans, and monitoring reports, and we prepare or refine responses to technical and legal comments from regulators so that our clients’ submittals move projects toward closure rather than back to the drawing board.
Our lawyers are deeply experienced in securing conditional closures using risk-based and remedy-optimization tools. We work extensively with engineering controls (such as permeable and impermeable caps, slurry walls, vapor mitigation systems, and groundwater extraction or containment systems), coordinating with consultants to ensure that design, construction, and monitoring requirements are well aligned with applicable Florida standards. Where contamination remains in place, we negotiate and draft Declarations of Restrictive Covenant and other institutional controls, recorded and nonrecorded, to limit future uses, protect human health and the environment, and provide regulators with confidence that the remedy will remain protective. These instruments are essential under Florida risk-based corrective action frameworks in statewide and county-specific programs.
Our Firm has built a lengthy history and deep reservoir of knowledge regarding Florida remediation statutes and rules, including Chapters 376 and 403, Florida Statutes; Chapter 62-780, F.A.C.; Chapter 24 of the Miami-Dade County Code (Environmental Protection Ordinance); and Chapter 27 of the Broward County Code (Pollution Control). We have handled matters involving petroleum, chlorinated solvents, pesticides, metals, and other contaminants under programs administered by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) and local delegated agencies. Because we have navigated these statutory and regulatory schemes for many years, we understand not only the written requirements but also how agencies apply them in practice. Over time, we have developed extensive experience and strong working relationships with technical and legal staff at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, FDEP, Miami-Dade County’s Department of Environmental Resources Management (DERM), Broward County’s Resilient Environment Department (RED), the Hillsborough County Environmental Protection Commission (EPC), and Palm Beach County’s Environmental Resources Management (ERM) Department. These agencies administer key cleanup and environmental protection programs, including petroleum and hazardous-substance site rehabilitation, Superfund and brownfields oversight, local groundwater and wellfield protection, and county-level contamination cleanup programs. Our familiarity with agency staff, procedures, and expectations allows us to anticipate issues, streamline communications, and craft pragmatic solutions that regulators can accept and clients can implement.
The Firm is frequently engaged to assist with some of Florida’s most challenging sites—gas stations and petroleum facilities, closed and operating landfills, golf courses, citrus groves, and commercial and retail nurseries—where historical practices have affected soil, groundwater, and, at times, off-site properties and drinking-water resources. Many of these properties are being cleaned up as part of redevelopment, requiring us to balance construction schedules, lender requirements, and future land-use plans with ongoing investigation and remediation. Working collaboratively with clients, consultants, engineers, and contractors, we design cleanup and risk-management strategies that support productive reuse—whether as residential, commercial, industrial, or mixed-use projects while satisfying federal, state, and local regulatory requirements.
The practice is strengthened significantly by Dr. Brian J. Dougherty, whose more than 30 years of leadership in contaminated site cleanup at the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) prior to joining the Firm provides clients with unparalleled technical depth. While at FDEP, Brian served as the technical lead for statewide contaminated site cleanup and closure, supervising expert staff and providing technical support across all FDEP cleanup programs, including petroleum, hazardous waste, brownfields, drycleaners, and CERCLA sites. He served as the rule manager for multiple updates to Chapter 62-780, F.A.C., the state’s Contaminated Site Cleanup Criteria, directly shaping the regulatory framework governing cleanup levels statewide. He directed the development of new and revised Cleanup Target levels under Chapter 62-777, F.A.C., as scientific information evolved or new contaminants emerged; guidance for large-parcel assessments with residual pesticide contamination, a critical issue for redevelopment of agricultural lands and golf courses during his tenure with FDEP and even more so now for many of the Firm’s clients; and the draft Ecological Risk Assessment guidance for Florida. Brian also oversaw the CERCLA site-screening program for the state, giving him deep familiarity with the Superfund process from the government’s perspective. Earlier in his career, he managed programs overseeing nearly 5,000 active petroleum cleanup sites, directing budgets up to $150 million annually and developing the state’s preapproval and performance-based cleanup programs. He led the creation of a single statewide cleanup tracking database to replace 13 legacy systems, bringing uniformity and transparency to cleanup oversight. Brian facilitated the statewide Contaminated Media Forum, a public technical working group that examines cleanup procedures and recommends updates based on evolving science—experience that is invaluable when negotiating with agencies on complex redevelopment projects. There have been renewed calls to bring back the Contaminated Media Forum, and the Firm expects to be an active participant.
Across all this work, we see ourselves as both legal counsel and strategic problem solvers. Our boutique structure allows us to remain closely involved in each matter, turning complex technical and regulatory issues into clear, actionable paths forward. By combining deep statutory and regulatory knowledge with hands-on experience at contaminated and redeveloped sites throughout Florida, we help our clients develop technically sound, regulator-ready remedial strategies; coordinate seamlessly with scientists, engineers, planners, and contractors; remediate legacy impacts; align cleanup and construction schedules to avoid costly delays; engage effectively with local communities and stakeholders; protect long-term stewardship obligations at redeveloped sites; protect public health and natural resources; and unlock the long-term value of their properties.