Innovative Water Solutions
Regulatory Advice
Litigation Experience
Legislative Successes
In-depth Natural Resources Strategies
Regional Leadership in Power Representation
A Diverse Client Base
Impressive Credentials
Water, energy, resources and environmental issues affect virtually every type of business and industrial interest. With increased government regulation, expanding technology and changing public policy, businesses need experienced environmental legal counsel to guide them through the intricate maze of evolving state and federal laws and regulations.
Ryley Carlock & Applewhite provides a full range of expertise in water, energy, resource and environmental matters. From banks to golf course developers, high tech companies to heavy industries, a diverse cross-section of public and private enterprises have come to rely on our Water, Energy, Resources and Environmental Attorneys for assistance in the areas of water law, environmental regulation, environmental litigation, environmental legislation, natural resource strategies, and power-related issues.
Innovative Water Solutions
In Arizona, Colorado and throughout the arid West, water supplies are essential to business success. At Ryley Carlock & Applewhite, our water law expertise is preeminent among law firms in the western United States. We understand water, how to find it, how to evaluate it and how to secure it for our clients.
We help clients acquire water and water rights or protect their existing rights through litigation, administrative proceedings and in the legislative arena, not only in Arizona but throughout much of the Southwest. The substantial size and broad expertise of our Water, Energy, Resources and Environmental practice enables us to simultaneously assist numerous clients in all aspects of their water acquisition, management and protection strategies.
Many of our water law transactions have been on the cutting edge of water resource policy and markets in the United States. Highlights of our water law representation include the following:
- Advocacy in state court general stream adjudications, including appellate advocacy in the Arizona Supreme Court and United States Supreme Court.
- Successful negotiation of numerous Indian Water Rights settlements.
- Participation in agency rulemakings under Arizona's Groundwater Code and Environmental Code.
- Obtaining water allocations from the Colorado River/Central Arizona Project.
- Assisted in the formation of the Mohave County Water Authority.
- Development and completion of cutting edge water transactions.
- Strategized legislative solutions for underground storage and interstate banking of renewable water supplies.
- Negotiated and obtained Congressional approval of a lease of Colorado River water from an Arizona Indian community.
- Obtaining certificates of assured water supply for numerous residential developments in Arizona.
- Representation of clients in regulatory agency enforcement actions.
- Secured water supplies for Western Arizona.
- Secured water supplies for Southern Nevada.
- Participated in efforts to reform State trust land laws.
- Restructured water supply for major mining corporation.
- Participated in drafting legislation authorizing water exchanges.
- Arranged transfers of Colorado River water rights and CAP allocations.
- Arranged transfers of surface water rights from irrigation districts to municipalities.
- Negotiated sales and leases of groundwater rights.
- Arranged purchases of large quantities of treated municipal effluent for use in industrial and irrigation applications.
Regulatory Advice
We provide a broad spectrum of services on environmental matters - from assistance with regulatory compliance and permitting issues associated with the handling and use of hazardous materials, water quality, air quality, hazardous and solid waste disposal, and underground storage tanks, to contamination cleanup, asbestos abatement, and environmental real estate due diligence. We also advise a variety of industrial, lending and agricultural interests on compliance with state and federal environmental laws and regulations.
Our areas of regulatory expertise include:
- CERCLA (federal superfund)
- WQARF (state superfund)
- RCRA (hazardous and solid waste disposal)
- SARA Title III (community right-to-know reporting)
- Asbestos regulation and remediation
- UST (underground storage tank) compliance and cleanup matters
- UST assurance fund reimbursement
- Aquifer protection permitting
- Environmental real estate due diligence design of environmental compliance policies and guidelines for lending institutions and developers
- Environmental compliance audits
- Petroleum contaminated soils
- Clean Water Act
- Clean Air Act
- Effluent reuse permitting
Litigation Experience
Our environmental litigation experience includes jury and non-jury trials in both state and federal courts and before various administrative agencies. We have participated in numerous cases involving superfund cost recovery actions, underground storage tank disputes, environmental enforcement actions and permit appeals. In addition, we are able to provide environmental criminal defense and grand jury representation for both individuals and business organizations.
Our environmental litigation experience includes the following kinds of matters:
- CERCLA litigation
- Compliance, enforcement and civil penalty issues under the state and federal UST laws and regulations, the Clean Water Act, and Arizona's Aquifer Protection Permit program.
- Private cleanup disputes
- Administrative litigation under groundwater quality protection and aquifer protection permit programs.
- Private UST disputes
Legislative Successes
A unique aspect of our practice is our experience in developing legislative solutions to our clients' environmental problems. Our Water, Energy, Resources and Environmental group includes highly-regarded lobbyists at the state and federal levels. We have had extensive and successful involvement in drafting and obtaining passage of a wide variety of legislation, and we participate regularly in various agency rule-makings.
We have played a central role in efforts to settle the reserved water rights claims of numerous Indian Tribes and federal agencies. Our lawyers assisted in securing Congressional approval of:
- The Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community Water Rights Settlement Act of 1988 (Public Law 100-512)
- The Fort McDowell Indian Community Water Rights Settlement Act of 1990 (Title IV, Public Law 101-628)
- The San Carlos Apache Tribe Water Rights Settlement Extension Act of 1997 (§ 5003, Public Law 105-18)
- The Ak-Chin Indian Community Water use Amendments Act of 2000 (Public Law 106-285)
- Arizona Water Settlements Act of 2004 (Public Law 108-451)
Examples of legislative and rule-making efforts in which our lawyers have participated include:
- Underground water storage and recovery legislation
- Interstate and intrastate water banking legislation
- CAP legislation
- Arizona UST and UST assurance fund legislation and rules
- Assured water supply rules
- Stage II vapor recovery legislation
- Agricultural water duty calculation legislation
- Active Management Area groundwater management plans
- Clean Air Act legislation and rules
- Effluent reuse rules
- Remediated water end use rules
- Water exchange statutes
- Well spacing and well impact rules
In-depth Natural Resources Strategies
Our firm has a long history of representing businesses and individuals in the development and utilization of public lands and resources in the West. We have significant expertise in a variety of natural resource issues, including forest resources, mining and public lands, and in-depth knowledge of the related laws and programs, including:
- National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA)
- Endangered Species Act (ESA)
- Federal Land Policy and Management Act (FLPMA)
- Federal and State mining laws
- Laws governing the use of timber and other forest resources
In addition, we have handled litigation involving a variety of natural resource issues in both federal and state courts, including appeals of timber sales, mining claim disputes, lawsuits relating to endangered species, and litigation on the adequacy of NEPA compliance.
Regional Leadership in Power Representation
Our Water, Energy, Resources and Environmental practice also includes the formation and representation of public utilities and special taxing districts throughout Arizona. Ryley Carlock & Applewhite is one of the few firms in Arizona to offer expertise in the areas of federal and wholesale power supply contracting and rate making, transmission access and retail electric competition.
Natural Resources Defense
Ryley Carlock attorneys have been practicing in the environmental arena for over 30 years. That experience, plus the firm's 60-year track record of success in complex litigation, enables the firm to provide a vast depth of expertise in defending natural resource damage claims for large companies across the United States.
Our experience includes both multi-party, multi-location cases, as well as single state, single trustee - single site cases. We coordinate settlement and federal/state interaction for clients and have worked on natural resource damage claims involving federal and state trustees. We have become very familiar with and regularly tackle issues such as large scale document review and due diligence, damage estimates, reclamation and restitution, mitigation alternatives and statutes of limitation. The combination of our water law expertise, litigation capabilities, mining law expertise and records and document review (e-discovery), ideally positions the firm to assist clients facing NRD challenges .
A Diverse Client Base
Public entities and private concerns representing myriad industries and business types turn to Ryley Carlock & Applewhite for our environmental expertise. Our diverse clientele includes:
- Cattle companies
- Developers
- Financial institutions
- Golf course developers and owners
- High tech companies
- Industrial concerns
- Irrigation districts
- Mining companies
- Municipalities
- Public utilities
- Water companies
Impressive Credentials
The lawyers in the Water, Energy, Resources and Environmental group have an impressive list of experiences. Among our lawyers' accomplishments you will find:
- Three former Deputy Counsel for the Arizona Department of Water Resources
- A former Senior Counsel for Arizona Public Service Company
- A former Senior Counsel for Phelps Dodge Corporation
- Former Chair of the Western States Water Council
- Current Chair of the Western States Water Council Legal Committee
- Chair of the Water Policy Committee for the Greater Phoenix Chamber of Commerce
- Director of Mountain States Legal Foundation
- Member of the Arizona Water Utilities Association
- Members of the Colorado River Water Users Association
- Member of the American Public Power Association
- Member of the Rocky Mountain Mineral Law Foundation
- Degrees in civil engineering, geological science, and forestry and soil science
- Activity and leadership in environmental-related sections and committees of the Bar Association, at the national, state and county level
- Extensive speaking and publishing on water, energy, resources and environmental topics
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Water, Energy, Resources and Environmental Law