| Mr. Page is an attorney with over 25 years experience addressing complex federal and state environmental law issues. His practice includes environmental litigation, trial practice, regulatory compliance and permitting. His litigation and trial practice work has emphasized expert analysis, environmental proof and forensics. Mr. Page has also worked extensively with clients in the areas of compliance and permitting under the Clean Water Act, the Resource Conservation & Recovery Act, the Clean Air Act, the Toxic Substance Control Act and the Safe Drinking Water Act. Mr. Page’s practice also focuses on CERCLA (Superfund) and Natural Resource Damage (NRD) issues and cases which, together with his compliance and permitting work, have allowed him to be actively engaged in meetings and negotiations with EPA staff at Regions I, IV, VI, VII & IX, and EPA Headquarters in Washington, DC. His work has allowed him to represent clients before environmental state agencies in the States of Alabama, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Kansas, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, Nebraska, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas. Mr. Page served as national environmental counsel for a major U.S. airline.
Mr. Page has a reputation for innovative problem solving with respect to complex legal and technical issues. Mr. Page has established a reputation for an ability to work with technical experts and developing and presenting concise and compelling expert testimony. Because of his legal experience and ability to work with scientists and engineers, Mr. Page’s advice is routinely requested in scoping and planning overall environmental strategies at sites.
Some of Mr. Page’s projects that involved innovative approaches include:
- Represented the Cities of Blackwell and Bartlesville, Oklahoma on the first Superfund State Deferral Project (CERCLA) under USEPA’s Superfund Accelerated Cleanup Model.
- Conceived, negotiated and helped to successfully implement the first “clean closure” of an RCRA permitted TSD facility using risk based analysis and principles.
- Conceived, organized and helped to successfully implement an environmental tracking/management system for the discontinued operations (sold and divested) of a major integrated oil and gas company.
- Actively participated in the USEPA “Reg-Neg” (Regulatory Negotiation) to develop the hazardous air pollutant (NESHAP) rules.
-Conceived and implemented a PRP investigation and environmental release tracking system at a major multiple-tenant, eighty-year old, multi-use industrial facility that had groundwater contamination of a sole-source aquifer.
- Negotiated and helped implement multi-faceted risk-based cleanups at the Miami, San Francisco and Boston International Airports.
- Negotiated the major mobile source air quality rules for airports and airlines within the South Coast Air Quality Management District (Southern California).
- In support of a Natural Resource Damage case, designed and implemented (with key scientist) the collection, organization and presentation of the causation, injury and damages evidence surrounding significant non-point source pollution of surface and ground water covering a 1,000,000 acre watershed over a 60 year period.
- Successfully assisted in permitting two Class I hazardous waste injection wells (only five permitted wells were in existence at the time of the permit issuance).
- Successfully negotiated with the EPA regional office and the state environmental agency a workout/compliance program for a RCRA TSD facility that had numerous RCRA waste management violations. No fines, penalties or NOV’s were issued or assessed.
- Negotiated with EPA Regions IV and VI, along with EPA Headquarters, an EPA Guidance Memorandum addressing CERCA/CWA release and reporting requirements related to aircraft de-icing operations.
- Successfully negotiated an agreement with State and Federal environmental authorities for the use of risk analysis to allow closure in place significant waste management facilities at a large petroleum refinery.
- Negotiated with USEPA a national general storm water permit for airports; and with the Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality the statewide general storm water permit for construction sites.
- Identified, designed and supervised the collection for evidence concerning the Department of Defense (DOD) responsibilities for contamination a former DOD facility – now a private industrial complex.
- Managed expert analysis concerning carbon black production and associated air releases involving environmental claims at facilities located in the United States and Germany.
- Provided legal analysis and directed evidence collection and expert analysis in order to determine the age/history of releases to allocate responsibility for environmental contamination from oil and gas exploration and production at legacy oil fields in West Texas and Eastern New Mexico.
- Assisted and helped manage (with technical experts) many environmental due diligence projects to evaluate the risk of purchasing obtaining historical operations at multi-state manufacturing facilities. Of Counsel |
Court Admissions Admitted to practice: Oklahoma & Arkansas, U.S. District Courts for the Northern, Western and Eastern Districts of Oklahoma and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit. Education Juris Doctorate degree, with honors, Order of the Curle Chair, from the University of Tulsa College of Law in (1981), Bachelor of Arts degree from the San Jose State University in (1978). Community Involvement - Oklahoma Bar Association
- Arkansas Bar Association
- American Bar Association
- Tulsa County Bar Association:
- Hudson/Hall/Wheaton Chapter of the American Inns of Court:
• Former Master and Barrister Adult Sunday School Teacher - First United Methodist Church, Tulsa, OK Regular speaker at professional seminars and the University of Tulsa College of Law on environmental topics. Member of the University of Tulsa Sustainable Energy & Resources Law Advisory Board Publications and Presentations Mr. Page has been invited to speak and write on subjects related to environmental law. He has been a regular guest lecturer at The University of Tulsa College of Law in its classes on hazardous waste and materials and is also the College of Law’s “Coach” for the PACE Environmental Law Advocacy Competition. He has published or spoken on a variety of environmental issues including: - “Civil and Criminal Liability for the Corporate Officer, Manager and Environmental Professional” (Air Transportation Association Engineering Conference, Pittsburg, Pennsylvania);
- “Environmental Concerns for Design Professionals” (Tulsa, Oklahoma);
- “Environmental Developments Affecting Air Carriers” (National Safety Council Congress, Orlando, Florida);
- “Risk Based Corrective Action and Intrinsic Remediation – Good News and Bad (with JB Fisher) (Energy Week 97 Conference and Exhibition, Houston, Texas);
- “The Impact of Bankruptcy Law on CERCLA Liability and Other Environmental Laws” (OBA, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma);
- “Negotiating Risk based Corrective Actions” (International Petroleum Environmental Conference, Albuquerque, New Mexico);
- “Nuisance Per Se and the Operation of High Pressure Gas Pipelines in Louisiana, Oklahoma and Texas” (OBAJ, Vol.52-No.42);
- “Risk Based Corrective Action for Underground Storage Tanks” ( Mealey’s UST Litigation Conference, Amelia Island, Florida).
|