Harry Weiss

• Following successful acquisition, assisted client in restart of operations and satisfaction of investors’ concerns and interests.
• Obtained summary judgment in favor of estate administered by a Fortune 500 Bank quieting title to 700 net oil, gas, and mineral acres in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, in a dispute between beneficiaries of an estate. Later on behalf of the winning beneficiaries fought off another challenge to title brought by a neighboring landowner.
• Represent a mid-market exploration and production company headquartered in Texas in connection with a title dispute of Marcellus and Utica Shale interests in Clarion County, Pennsylvania.
• Represent a number of financial institutions concerning the impact of shale gas plays on bank business, such as lending to local and regional businesses supporting the energy boom, and mortgaging commercial and residential properties that may see natural gas development
• Environmental Counsel to developer of centralized oil and gas waste water treatment centers in Pennsylvania
• Served as Environmental Counsel to operator of gas pipeline in Northwest Pennsylvania during its acquisition of additional pipeline assets in the Commonwealth
• Served as Environmental Counsel to a Colorado-based investor in acquisition of coal bed methane project in Clearfield County, Pennsylvania

Litigation Experience

• Provided a national glass and plastic container manufacturer with a RCRA-compliance strategy to avoid RCRA violations in connection with the reuse of materials previously characterized as a hazardous waste in a closed-loop recycling system
• For multiple clients in Pennsylvania and in other jurisdictions such as California and New Jersey, provided legal support in a number of multi-million dollar RCRA-mandated corrective action cleanups during closure of manufacturing enterprises and their corrective action units
• Successfully defended manufacturing client against two separate United States-led criminal and civil enforcement actions alleging multiple violations of RCRA hazardous waste storage and disposal laws and regulations, and United States Department of Transportation hazardous waste shipping, labeling and packaging regulations. Negotiated terms of guilty plea and civil consent order that brought the client’s hazardous waste management practices back into compliance
• Obtained summary judgment from the Pennsylvania Environmental Hearing Board (EHB) for the nation's largest independently-owned power producer against a claim that a 1.4 megawatt gas-fired generation station would violate state and federal air pollution control standards. Later, litigated separate challenges to the project before the EHB under federal and state water pollution laws.
• Secured judgment from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit on behalf of the Philadelphia Regional Port Authority and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in litigation brought by New Jersey, Delaware, and several environmental advocacy groups attempting to sidetrack the Authority's and the United States' $360 million plan to deepen the Main Shipping Channel in the Delaware River
• Represented a hydroelectric generating company seeking to abandon its Certificate of Public Convenience over the objections of Amtrak in proceedings before the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission
• Defended a global packaging company against natural resource damage claims at multiple New Jersey locations brought by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection
• Defended a retail development client in New Jersey against a citizen suit alleging multiple violations of construction storm water control requirements and related state and federal law
• Served as co-counsel in multi-jurisdictional (Connecticut Federal Court and New York and Florida State Courts) fraud and breach of contract lawsuit arising out of the transfer of all of the assets of an aircraft parts fabricator
• Defended against a citizen suit alleging that the recycling project on alleged public-trust property constituted impermissible public-trust use

Development Projects

• Provide counseling to a University seeking a determination that its plan for neutralization of hazardous waste prior to shipment would not require an individual RCRA hazardous waste treatment permit
• Serve as Environmental Counsel in support of a Pennsylvania university’s modification of its program under RCRA to collect, store and arrange for disposal of its hazardous waste
• As permitting counsel for Action Manufacturing Co., Inc., assisted the client in obtaining the first hazardous waste treatment, storage and disposal (TSD) facility permit issued in Pennsylvania under Subpart X of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) permitting provisions (pertaining to heat treatment of hazardous wastes). In 2019, obtained a permit modification under RCRA allowing the client’s TSD facility to accept for treatment in the facility hazardous waste generated at the client’s other facilities
• Represent a major oil and gas exploration, production and refining company in connection with the redevelopment of a former refining site in New York
• Served as Environmental Counsel to operator of gas pipeline in Northwest Pennsylvania during its acquisition of additional pipeline assets in the Commonwealth
• Served as Environmental Counsel to the Philadelphia Phillies during the ball club's development of its state-of-the-art ballpark on former industrial property
• Served as Environmental Counsel to a national retailer developing stores in New Jersey and Pennsylvania; advised client on environmental due diligence during property acquisition phase, and on brownfield site development issues (including with respect to store developments on former refinery, Superfunds and automobile manufacturing sites)
• Served as Environmental Counsel to developer of build-to-suit big-box warehouse complexes (in excess of one million square feet) on brownfield and other contaminated sites
• Serve as Environmental Counsel to a number of low- and middle-income housing developers engaged in building residential developments in urban infill areas