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Roy M. Harsch is a partner and one of the senior members of the firm’s Environmental Practice Group. Roy's practice focuses on providing comprehensive environmental counsel to a broad array of clients including municipalities, sanitary districts, manufacturing facilities and developers located throughout the United States. Based upon his engineering education, government experience and many years of environmental representation, he is very adept in providing thorough, practical and cost effective counsel regarding environmental issues facing this diverse group of clients.
Roy's experience includes significant air pollution practice encompassing all aspects of new source review, permitting and enforcement affecting a wide variety of industrial companies including chemical manufacturing, food processing, iron and steel and utility clients. He is also actively involved in representing clients with respect to Title V permitting and enforcement. This extensive air pollution background also includes a thorough understanding and participation in rulemaking at the state and local levels in response to the Clean Air Act requirements. Roy has also actively represented a number of clients engaged in rulemakings before the U.S. EPA.
Based upon his experience in service as the hearing officer at the Illinois Pollution Control Board when the state’s NPDES permit regulations were adopted and then overseeing the delegation from U.S. EPA to the State of Illinois, Roy has continued an active water pollution practice for both municipal and industrial clients. This includes all aspects of NPDES permitting and enforcement including pretreatment programs and requirements. Roy also counsels clients with respect to the evolving focus of U.S. EPA and the state to that of combined sewer discharges, sanitary sewer overflows and storm sewer permitting and enforcement. He is actively involved in the development of state effluent requirements and water quality standards including water toxins, ammonia and nutrients, to name a few. Roy also actively represents clients in response to the issues of antidegradation and establishment of total maximum daily load allocations that have recently come to the forefront of water practice. In addition to these traditional water pollution areas, he also has extensive experience in counseling clients with respect to the public water supply issues and the Safe Drinking Water Act requirements, and wetland permitting and enforcement. Roy also has established himself as a unique counselor in the area of agricultural related problems. These include representation of numerous grain elevators, grain processors, chemical applicators and livestock operations including feed lots and dairies.
Roy also has extensive experience in counseling clients with respect to hazardous waste management and permitting under the Resource Conservation Recovery Act. His clients have been involved in Part B permitting as well as extensive RCRA remediations. They also have performed remediations required under CERCLA and state equivalent statutes. These clients have ranged from individual property owners to multinational corporations with multiple sites. In addition, he has actively represented utilities with respect to manufactured gas plant issues, and, therefore, he is thoroughly familiar with and has participated in the development of risk based cleanup objectives and Brownfield redevelopment programs.
Based upon this range of environmental representation, Roy is uniquely suited to assist his clients in the establishment of effective environmental management systems and the implementation of environmental audit programs. He has worked closely with the U.S. EPA’s regional and national offices to resolve noncompliance issues through U.S. EPA’s environmental audit policy and other compliance incentive-based programs at the state and federal levels. This includes participation in numerous national and regional sector-based initiatives including those of the synthetic organic chemical, iron and steel, wood product, and grain processing areas. While Roy has been very successful on behalf of clients in avoiding and resolving conflicts in the environmental area, he has significant experience in litigation under the multitude of state and federal environmental statutes affecting his clients. This litigation includes defending citizen complaints under the Clean Water Act, Resource Conservation Recovery Act and private cost recovery actions.
Roy routinely provides cost effective environmental counsel based upon his history of experience in dealing with a multitude of environmental problems for a wide range of environmental clients.
Roy is a frequent lecturer on all aspects of environmental regulation including recent speeches to the Illinois Association of Wastewater Agencies, Water Environment Federation, Mid-West Energy Group, American Gas Association, Illinois Wastewater Operator’s Association and many firm environmental seminars. | 