First Exam Summer 2017
1. You represent a company that sells equipment which will take methane gas generated from a county landfill and burn it, on-site, to generate electricity. This process is known as co-generation. Your client will make a proposal to an Ohio county to sell this equipment for installation at the county landfill. Your client asks you to discuss any environmental law considerations that may be of concern in this instance.
2. A developer is considering building a golf club and resort in rural area in southern Ohio. The developer has plans for an 18-hole championship golf course, Racquet, Swim and Summer Club amenities and a master planned community. The project is estimated to cost somewhere around 500 million dollars ($500,000,000). The developer asks you to advise her about any environmental law concerns if she asks a federal government agency to guarantee the loan used to construct this project.
3. A company is presently operating in compliance with its air pollution permit issued by the local Air Pollution Control District. The company currently emits 1,000 tons of regulated air pollutants per year. The company’s air pollution control equipment is old and the company wants to replace it with new equipment that will operate twice as efficiently as the present equipment. During the installation process the old pollution control equipment will not be working for a two week period while the new pollution control equipment is being installed and not yet in operation. What advice do you give the company president?
4. An Ohio city has experienced significant growth and realizes that it is time to build a second publically owned sewage treatment plant (POTW). In reviewing the options available to the city, the city council has narrowed the possibilities down to two options:
a. Send all the plant’s treated wastewater to city owned parks and landscaped areas where the water will be used to irrigate the plants and lawns.
b. Discharge all the treated wastewater into the Ohio River.
The POTW will also generate methane gas which will be used to operate part of the treatment system, with the excess gas being burned off in a flare tower at the site.
Please advise the city council regarding any environmental law issues that may affect these options.
5. You are the environmental, health & safety officer at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory located in Livermore, California. The laboratory has a remote site, called Site 300, about 15 miles from Livermore which was developed in the 1950s as a research facility. It is operated primarily as a high-explosives and materials testing site in support of nuclear weapons research. Approximately 350 people who work in the area are provided with drinking water from groundwater in the area. Site 300 is only used from June 11th through August 11th. As the environmental counsel for the laboratory, what are your concerns regarding the drinking water?
6. You are the environmental officer in an Ohio county. The county Prosecutor contacts you stating that a confidential informant has provided the following information:
a. Company X, an electroplating shop is located in the county;
b. Company X discharges it industrial wastewater directly to the county sewer which goes directly to the county owned and operated sewage treatment plant, which, in turn, discharges its wastewater to the Ohio River;
c. Company X burns “material” in its furnace which has a 50 foot high smokestack;
d. Company X obtained a county building permit without completing any federal environmental studies.
The county Prosecutor asks for your opinion as to whether or not any environmental laws have been broken, and what are the next steps that the Prosecutor should take.