Services
Solid Waste and Municipal Solid Waste
The mid-south and southeastern regions where Stites & Harbison maintains its practice saw the import of vast quantities of municipal waste in the 1980s and 1990s as garbage disposal in the northeast became costly. State regulations eventually became the drivers of solid waste regulation in this region. Stites & Harbison has been heavily involved in development of the regulations, development and amendment of local solid waste management plans, and negotiation of local franchises for municipal waste disposal.
Representative matters include:
- Negotiated settlement agreements among the state environmental agency, a composting facility, and a waste generator for cleanup of a solid waste composting site that inadvertently received potentially hazardous waste.
- Assisted international municipal waste collection and disposal company on issues ranging from landfill expansions and local solid waste management plan amendments to citizen suits, sale of several landfills, including permit transfers, and satisfaction of key personnel reporting requirements.
- Worked out closure of a pre-law county landfill in connection with transfer of the landfill tract.
- Advised numerous clients regarding minimal required measures to reduce liability associated with decades-old landfill sites.
- Assisted in obtaining local government approval for landfills under the Tennessee Jackson Law.
- Represented company in federal citizen suit for alleged violation of subtitle D and imminent and substantial endangerment.
- Represented company seeking to obtain change in policy for requirements for special waste.
- Represented company in successfully challenging flow control restrictions under the Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution.