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Periconi, LLC

Phone: 646-733-4487
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Phone: 646-733-4487

Reducing Environmental Risk

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Providing Aggressive Citizen Suit Defense Representation

“Citizen suits” have become a popular way for private citizens, whether community groups or environmental groups, to bring environmental enforcement actions, as “private attorney general,” against alleged polluters. Typically citizen suits allege regulatory violations against businesses and demand compliance with environmental laws, rehabilitation of environmentally sensitive sites and other reliefs.

How Citizen Suits Come About

A number of federal laws allow citizen suits, including the Clean Water Act (CWA), the Clean Air Act (CAA), the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), and the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA), aka/k/a the Superfund Law). These citizen suit laws allow private citizens to step into the role of the government agencies when the government is believed to be unable or unwilling to act. Because citizen suits allege violations of federal and/or state environmental laws, heavily regulated industries that tend to generate or handle pollutants in their day-to-day activities are usually targeted. These include businesses that, due to their operations, require water discharge permits (i.e., state pollutant discharge elimination system permit), air emissions permits (i.e., Title V operating permit), or generate, store or treat hazardous waste under RCRA’s permitting programs.

The attorneys at Periconi, LLC, have the experience in handling and defending citizen suits. For example, Periconi, LLC, has successfully negotiated a settlement on behalf of a major national company with the original Riverkeeper that will help this client obtain CWA discharge permit compliance for its many facilities across most of the United States. But, if the settlement potential is not great, for whatever reason, Periconi, LLC, will work tirelessly to put forth the strongest legal defense on behalf of its clients. Periconi, LLC, will coordinate with environmental consultants and professionals using all available defenses.

Let Us Help You

If your business is being sued or threatened with a citizen suit, contact Periconi, LLC, at 646-733-4487, in New York City or by email to speak with one of our lawyers for more information about rights and defenses available to you.