Real Audio Available
(Members Only)

 

Luncheon Brown Bag

Environmental Incident Management for Corporate Counsel

Co-Sponsored by
The Environmental Law Institute
American Bar Association Section of Environment, Energy, and Resources
American Corporate Counsel Association (ACCA) Environmental Law Committee
ACCA Baltimore Chapter
Washington Metropolitan Area Corporate Counsel Association

Date: Tuesday, October 23, 2001

Time: 12:00 - 2:00 p.m. (Speakers will begin promptly at 12:30 p.m.)

Place: RFF Conference Center (First Floor level) at the Environmental Law Institute, 1616 P Street, NW, Washington, DC 20036

Join us for this timely panel discussion on the in-house counsel's role in response to significant environmental incidents and health and safety issues, such as an accidental release of pollutants or hazardous substances or a facility emergency. Using a hypothetical fact pattern, the panel will provide their informed counsel on guiding corporate management and operational staff in their response to the media and public, managing an investigation, and approaches to minimizing the potential for legal sanctions. There will be an opportunity to ask questions or offer comments from the audience. Plan to attend or see details below about listening to the session later on the World Wide Web.

Moderator: Erik Meyers, General Counsel, ELI

Panel:
(In Washington, DC)
Bernice Heilbrunn, Senior Counsel, Marturion Incorporated, Houston, TX Paul Shorb, Senior Attorney, AT&T Corp., Basking Ridge, N.J. Karin Stamy, General Attorney, Norfolk Southern Corporation, Norfolk, VA

(In Baltimore, MD)
Raissa Kirk, Senior Attorney, Crown Central Petroleum Corporation, Baltimore, MD* Lynne Durbin, General Counsel and Secretary, Adhesives Research, Inc., Glen Rock, PA* Lydia Duff, Senior Environmental Counsel, W.R. Grace & Co., Columbia, MD*

RSVP: For Washington, DC location by telephone to 202-939-3858 or email mcmurrin@eli.org For Baltimore, MD location by telephone to Kimberly Curry at 410-580-4517 or email kimberly.curry@piperrudnick.com

*The ACCA Baltimore Chapter will meet for the session at Piper, Marbury, Rudnick & Wolfe LLP, 6225 Smith Avenue, Baltimore, Maryland 21209; lunch will be provided. The Baltimore and Washington locations will be linked by telephone hook-up and the session will be recorded using ELI's digital audio technology and posted to the ELI, ABA, and ACCA web sites approximately one week after the program. Those unable to attend in person will be able to listen to the full recorded session over the Internet.

Hypothetical for October 23, 2001 Panel On Environmental Incident Management

A hydrocarbon release occurred at Manufacturing Incorporated's (MI) Cloisterville, Georgia facility at 2:50 p.m. on Friday, April 6. The release resulted in several tanks and a pipeband catching fire. The tanks contained benzene and ethylene oxide and a huge explosion ensured. Approximately 200 union employees and 100 contractors were working at the plant when the fire started. Some 35 people were injured, including 20 contractor employees, and two MI employees were killed.

The explosion caused immediate smoke and exterior damage to homes across the street from the facility. Approximately 45 people were overcome by fumes and rushed to the hospital from both the neighboring homes and also from Cloisterville High School just up the street, where afternoon outdoor sports were beginning and students were boarding buses home.

Upon hearing the blast and seeing the smoke, Cloisterville residents, school officials, and local media jammed phone lines into the plant trying to obtain information. Families of the plant workers were unable to get through. Residents who could get through complained they didn't know whether or not to evacuate.

A Georgia Department of Environmental Quality inspector came to the plant approximately two hours after the explosion. Gate personnel, unable to locate a manager to approve her entry, turned the inspector away.

Within an hour of the explosion a local media crew set up television cameras across the street from the facility in front of the blackened homes. They broadcast live and the reporter pushed his microphone in front of MI personnel leaving the facility gates seeking comment on the incident. Several residents talked to the cameras about what they saw, their concern for workers inside the plant, and the damage to their homes.

The next morning EPA Region IV came to inspect the facility. The environmental manager allowed the inspector to walk around the plant grounds escorted by an administrative assistant, while the environmental manager finished reporting duties related to the explosion. After several hours, the EPA inspector returned to the Administration Building and asked to review the tank maintenance files. The manager took the inspector to the Operations Department, and then allowed him to take several files after the inspector promised to copy and return them quickly.

Approximately two weeks after the incident a preliminary in-house investigation revealed that contractor negligence during a routine maintenance procedure caused the release that led to the blast. The investigation also revealed that two months before the incident, the MI project manager sent an e-mail to "All Managers" raising a concern with the contract workers' disregard for MI procedures. The neighbors also have asked for a public meeting to discuss plant safety issues and want company officials present.

The panel will discuss the role of the in-house counsel managing and responding to this incident, including: the in-house counsel's role in emergency response planning and prevention, release reporting, legal privilege issues, the lawyer as crisis manager, coordination of in-house investigations and OSHA investigations, media issues, community warning systems, community relations, documentation of problems and follow up, contract workers and labor, reimbursement for property damage, relations with state and local environmental officials and more...