Jim has a comprehensive environmental law practice with experience in all aspects of environmental law. Jim specializes in wetlands permitting and municipal water project development, corporate environmental audit programs, permitting of industrial plant development and expansion projects and environmental litigation. He also has environmental litigation experience in federal and state courts and administrative hearings.
Representative Experience
Lake Gaston Pipeline Project: Involved in all phases of the permitting work on the Lake Gaston Pipeline Project which supplies the South Hampton Roads area of Virginia with 60 million gallons per day of water. The State of North Carolina fought this project for almost two decades in federal and state administrative and judicial proceedings.
King William Reservoir Project: Involved in all phases of the permitting work for the King William Reservoir Project designed to supply 25 million gallons per day of water. Work on this project involved the federal Clean Water Act and Coastal Zone Management Act, applicability of EPA's environmental justice policies, cultural and historic resources issues, anadromous fisheries issues and water rights litigation.
Brownfields: Assisted local cable television franchisee in developing a lease and purchase option agreement for a closed industrial plant in Virginia that had been stigmatized by solvent contamination in soils and groundwater.
VPDES Compliance Litigation: Represented Fortune 500 Company in landmark federal Clean Water Act citizen's suit litigation and in later federal and Virginia court litigation on alleged VPDES permit violations.
Kepone: Represented the Commonwealth of Virginia in litigation against Allied Chemical Corporation, and in protracted settlement negotiations which funded the Commonwealth's efforts to force clean up of the pesticide Kepone discharged into the James River at Hopewell, Virginia.
Publications
"Building New Water Supply Capacity: What Works and What Doesn't," with George A. Somerville and M. Scott Hart, January 1, 2006.
"Recent Case Developments In Wetlands Permitting," with Gregory W. Blount, August 30, 2002.
Principal Author, Virginia Environmental Law Handbook
(2008, 4th Ed.), Government Institutes, Inc., Rockville, MD, 400 pps.
Author, Chapter on Environmental Law, Handbook of Virginia Local Government Law, Local Government Attorney of Virginia, Inc. (2010).
Honors and Other Distinctions
Recognized as one of America's Leading Lawyers for Environmental Law by Chambers USA. (2005, 2006, 2008, 2009 and 2010)
Recognized as a Virginia Super Lawyer in Environmental Litigation (2006, 2007, 2008)
Recognized in Best Lawyers in America in Environmental Law and Water Law (2007-2011)