Where the obligations come from
Many environmental requirements come from federal statutes covering air, water, hazardous waste, and chemicals, but states usually administer much of the day-to-day permitting and enforcement. In New York, the Department of Environmental Conservation issues many permits and conducts inspections, and local agencies may add rules of their own. A business can face obligations it did not expect, such as storage tank registration, stormwater controls at a construction site, or reporting of certain chemicals kept on site. Federal standards in some areas, including vehicle greenhouse gas rules, have been rolled back or are being contested, while state requirements may continue on their own track, so current status should be confirmed rather than assumed. Buying or leasing property can also bring existing contamination issues with it.
Records that show what you have done
Gather your permits and permit applications, monitoring and sampling data, waste manifests, inspection reports, and any correspondence with the EPA or state agencies. Complete records kept the way the permit requires are often the strongest evidence that a facility has been operating properly. If you discover a problem internally, such as an unreported release or a missed monitoring event, talk with counsel about reporting obligations right away, because some releases must be reported quickly and delay can make matters worse. The EPA and many states have policies that may reduce penalties for violations a company finds and discloses on its own, subject to conditions. Internal audits are more useful when planned with counsel, since how they are set up can affect whether the findings stay confidential.
Responding to an inspection or notice
A notice of violation or an agency information request usually comes with a response date, and those dates can be short. When you bring us a notice, we review it alongside the permit conditions involved and the records that address them, and then decide whether to correct the issue, contest the agency's reading, or negotiate a consent order. We also look at whether the same facts could lead to citizen suits or claims from neighbors, which follow separate rules. For an ongoing environmental law compliance program, we identify which permits and reports apply and who in the company is responsible for each. The goal is a calendar and a set of practices the facility can actually maintain.
