Enforcement Resolution Project Examples

• We resolved an enforcement case against a landowner in northwestern Pennsylvania who had initiated work in wetlands prior to securing the necessary authorizations. We subsequently prepared permit applications and designed mitigation for the expansion of a shopping center into about 15 acres of wetlands. All state permits were approved.

• In the Passaic River basin of northern New Jersey we demonstrated that an office building had not been built in wetlands, thereby resolving a federal enforcement action.

• In suburban Philadelphia we assisted a marina owner who was prosecuted for work in tidal wetlands without the necessary Federal and state approvals. We oversaw the successful restoration of the marsh and eliminated a requirement for replanting.

• In central New Jersey we analyzed an array of alternatives for compliance with an administrative consent order for a major office, hotel, and warehouse distribution complex. We participated in technical negotiations with USEPA extending over a period of years to achieve the necessary restoration in a technically feasible and economically viable way. More than 60 acres of wetland creation and restoration were required.

• In central New Jersey we assisted a bank in resolving wetland violations for a residential coastal project whose developer had failed to secure required approvals. We prepared the necessary permit applications to allow completion of the project so that the bank could market the land. We designed and implemented mitigation to the satisfaction of the regulatory agencies.

• At a residential development in northern New Jersey we resolved a state enforcement action by showing that no work had actually encroached into any regulated wetland. Here are views of that site: