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| Sector Expertise and Experiences |
Chemicals and Petrochemicals
Russell Frye has worked on a wide variety of issues in the chemical and petrochemical sectors. He has represented
companies manufacturing adhesives, antimicrobial pesticide products, carbonless copy paper, dyes and pigments,
fragrances, plastics, solvents, and various petrochemical products. He has addressed the environmental issues in
financing of plastics production facilities, natural gas liquids plants, pipelines, and oil and gas storage and transfer
facilities. Mr. Frye’s familiarity with the petrochemical industry dates back over 30 years, when he edited
engineering guidelines for Mobil Corporation. He has been involved in issues ranging from oil exploration and
production waste disposal to new source review (NSR) requirements for complex refinery projects. Over the years
he has provided advice to or represented in litigation many industry trade associations, including the American
Chemistry Council, the American Petroleum Institute, the National Petrochemical and Refiners Association, the
Pulp Chemicals Association, and the Society of Independent Gasoline Markers of America.
Copyright FryeLaw PLLC 2005. THE INFORMATION CONTAINED ON THIS SITE IS INTENDED TO EDUCATE MEMBERS OF THE PUBLIC GENERALLY AND IS NOT INTENDED TO PROVIDE SOLUTIONS TO INDIVIDUAL LEGAL PROBLEMS, NOR TO CREATE AN ATTORNEY-CLIENT RELATIONSHIP. PLEASE READ OUR DISCLAIMER PAGE. |
 |
Cities and Counties
Russ Frye understands the special circumstances of local governments, which often play dual roles of environmental and health regulator and
permitted operator of water, wastewater, or solid waste facilities. Mr. Frye has represented city and county governments in numerous
citizen suits aimed at releases from wastewater management and solid waste facilities. He also has assisted in the defense of toxic tort
actions against a city in its role as public water supplier. Mr. Frye has made presentations on environmental liability issues to the American
Water Works Association and the Association of Metropolitan Sewerage Agencies.
Financial Institutions
Having represented both private and public financial institutions, Russell Frye brings valuable practical experience helping industrial and
commercial clients deal with environmental problems, and he understands issues from the perspective of both the lender and the borrower.
During the 1990s, when he headed up the environmental practice worldwide for multinational law firm Chardbourne & Parke, Mr. Frye
addressed numerous types of environmental issues arising in many different types of financings. He helped some of the world’s largest banks
develop mechanisms to minimize environmental liability exposure for sensitive projects (such as financing nuclear waste storage equipment)
and for complex, non-traditional financing structures (such as defeased-asset financing). He has advised both commercial banks and
multilateral development banks on the development of policies and procedures to identify projects and transactions with potential
environmental problems and to minimize both legal liability and public criticism for the lending institutions. Mr. Frye also has counseled
lenders involved in work-out situations where there were substantial environmental permitting, compliance or contamination concerns.
Food Products
Russell Frye has advised clients in the food products sector on both compliance with environmental laws and on food safety issues. He has
represented food additive producers, restaurant chains, cow/calf producers, chicken farmers, and pet food manufacturers. In this work, Russ
has become familiar with Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulation of direct and indirect food additives, standards for contaminants in
fish tissue and fish consumption advisories, FDA establishment regulations, and regulations under the Virus-Serum-Toxin Act. He has
successfully litigated against USDA actions allowing Canadian beef into the U.S. without sufficient analysis of the risk of transmitting Bovine
Spongiform Encephalopathy (“BSE” or “Mad Cow Disease”) and has negotiated with FDA on a variety of issues involving exposure to 2,3,7,8-
TCDD (“dioxin”). Recently, Mr. Frye has analyzed the potential for enforcement under the Emergency Planning and Community Right To Know
Act for failure of feedlots to notify EPA of releases of ammonia and other pollutants, as well as the impact of nutrient water quality standards
guidance on agriculture. He also is involved in issues arising from the use of treated wastewater for irrigated agriculture..
Forest Products
Russell Frye has extensive experience with all aspects of environmental issues in the forest products industry, representing the American
Forest & Paper Association, the National Council for Air & Stream Improvement, and numerous individual forest products companies. He was
the primary attorney advising the industry on EPA's "Cluster Rule," EPA and state responses to the discovery of dioxin discharges at bleached
pulp mills, regulation of methanol as a hazardous air pollutant, and other critical environmental issues for pulp and paper mills of the last two
decades. He has represented the forest products industry in EPA proceedings and litigation involving numerous issues concerning toxic and
bioaccumulative chemicals, such as water quality standards for dioxin and PCBs; water quality requirements for impaired waters (TMDLs) and
for the Great Lakes; regulation of isolated waters and wetlands; exposure to cellulose fiber and wood spores; emission standards for bark
boilers and black liquor recovery boilers; and the interrelationship of air pollution and water pollution control requirements for solid wood
facilities.
Mr. Frye has advised over a dozen forest products companies on environmental compliance, permitting for new and expanded facilities,
contaminated site cleanup, and environmental management and stewardship, and he has represented such companies in government
enforcement actions, citizen suits, litigation over allocation of liability for contaminated wood treating sites, and other types of litigation.
Recently, he has spent much of his time assisting pulp and paper mills and wood products plants with Clean Air Act enforcement and
permitting matters, as well as rulemaking and now litigation concerning Maximum Achievable Control Technology standards for plywood and
composite wood panel manufacturers.
Foundries and Steel Mills
Russell Frye has worked on environmental issues in the foundry industry for almost 25 years, representing both ferrous and non-ferrous
founders and die casters, as well as industry trade associations. He has worked on permitting for new foundries and major expansions,
foundry sand disposal permitting, remediation of and litigation concerning foundry waste sites, clean-up of hydraulic equipment leaks,
wastewater and stormwater discharge permitting, and similar issues for over a dozen foundries in seven or more states. In the mid-1980s, Mr.
Frye represented a foundry in a massive grand jury investigation that resulted in what was then the largest state criminal penalty for
hazardous waste violations.
Mr. Frye represented the American Foundry Society (AFS) and the Cast Metals Federation in connection with EPA’s 1985 promulgation of
effluent limitations guidelines and pretreatment standards for the Metal Molding and Casting point source category. More recently, he helped
negotiate a settlement on behalf of several metal casting trade associations that resulted in most foundries and die casters being excluded
from National Emissions Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants (NESHAPs) for the Secondary Aluminum Production source category. He
currently is helping represent AFS and the Steel Founders Society of America in a petition for review in the Court of Appeals for the District of
Columbia Circuit of NESHAPs (MACT standards) for the Iron and Steel Foundries source category.
As a result of Collier Shannon Scott, PLLC’s history of involvement in the iron and steel manufacturing sector, Mr. Frye advised the Steel
Manufacturers Association, the Specialty Steel Industry of North America, and the American Iron and Steel Institute on numerous
environmental matters, and he has represented those organizations in litigation challenging EPA regulations on new source review, cooling
water intake structures, and the like. He is currently the primary lawyer for Collier Shannon Scott’s representation of steel mills in challenges
in the D.C. Circuit of NESHAPs for the Iron and Steel Manufacturing and Taconite Iron Ore Production source categories. In addition, Mr. Frye
has worked on air pollution and wastewater discharge permitting issues for numerous individual steel mills. Mr. Frye also has experience with
steel service centers, having conducted environmental audits and advised on acquisitions and divestitures in that sector.
Metalworking and Machinery
Russell Frye has a deep understanding of the environmental issues faced by businesses that manufacture metal parts, products, and
machinery. In addition to his work with iron and steel mills and ferrous and non-ferrous foundries described above, he has represented
companies that manufacture a diverse range of products, including air conditioning equipment, automobiles and automotive parts, bicycles,
bottling equipment, cast iron pipe and copper tubing, copper and brass plumbing fittings, forklifts, hand tools, machine tools, valves, staplers
and staples, and steel doors.
Mr. Frye has been involved in both the development and the implementation and enforcement of many regulatory programs affecting
manufacturers, such as pretreatment requirements for discharges to municipal sewers, restrictions on emissions from coatings and adhesives,
management of PCB-containing electrical equipment and hydraulic equipment, solvent use and disposal, use and disposal of metalworking
fluids, use and recycling of solvents, and the management of various types of solid and hazardous waste.
Power Generation and Public Utilities
Throughout the 1990s, Russell Frye headed the environmental practice group worldwide for the multinational law firm Chadbourne & Parke,
which was one of the leaders in the independent power sector and project finance of power, water, and other infrastructure projects. As a
result, Mr. Frye has addressed environmental issues in permitting and financing of coal-fired power plants, combined-cycle natural gas
turbines, gas and coal cogeneration projects, incinerators, biomass-fired boilers, geothermal projects, and wind farms. Prior to that, he
advised one of the partners in the first-ever conversion of a nuclear power plant to fossil fuel. Language Mr. Frye drafted to provide fair
treatment to cogenerators in the acid rain control program was incorporated into the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990, and he subsequently
brought successful litigation in the Court of Appeals to force EPA to withdraw an overly restrictive definition of cogeneration in its
regulations implementing the acid rain amendments. More recently, Mr. Frye has been involved in rulemaking and litigation concerning
technology requirements for cooling water intake structures at electric generating stations and other large facilities.
Having advised numerous multinational commercial banks and several development banks and export credit agencies on environmental issues
in financing power plants, Mr. Frye appreciates the concerns of lenders and the public about such projects. He has been involved in all
aspects of siting and permitting landfills for municipal waste and industrial waste and has represented landfill operators in enforcement
actions and toxic tort claims. He has negotiated or litigated matters concerning many environmental issues in the utility sector, including
nitrogen oxides (NOx) controls, ash disposal, beneficial use of fly ash and wastewater treatment plant sludge, landfill leachate management,
and water and wastewater treatment plant sludge disposal. He has been involved in litigation both challenging and defending the quality of
water supplied by public and private water utilities and has represented wastewater treatment utilities in public and private enforcement
actions, permit negotiation, and permit appeals.
Trade Associations
Russell Frye has represented national trade associations and business organizations since the early 1980s. In some cases, he regularly provides
such organizations with environmental, antitrust, and general litigation advice, while in other instances he has been retained by the
organization, or by an ad hoc coalition of such organizations, to provide representation on a particular rulemaking, judicial challenge to
agency action, or participation in appellate litigation as an amicus curiae. Mr. Frye has advised trade associations on document creation and
retention policies, antitrust compliance, attorney-client privilege and joint defense agreement issues, use of the Freedom of Information Act
(FOIA), lobbying strategy and regulations, defending and mitigating the risk of toxic tort actions, and numerous other issues that trade
associations face. He has represented both industry and business associations, and technical and scientific associations. Mr. Frye currently is
representing, for example, an ad hoc coalition of 13 trade associations and business organizations as intervenors in litigation aimed at forcing
EPA to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from automobiles, whose members range from the American Petroleum Institute to the National
Association of Convenience Stores.
For a detailed description of Russ Frye’s experience with various areas of environmental, health, and safety law, as well as administrative law
and litigation and alternative dispute resolution, click here.
For more specific examples of matters Russ Frye has worked on and the types of EHS services that FryeLaw PLLC can provide, click here.
For a list of representative clients, comments about Russ Frye and FryeLaw PLLC by others, and examples of successes Russ has obtained for
his clients, click here.
Russ Frye understands the special circumstances of local governments, which often play dual roles of environmental and health regulator and
permitted operator of water, wastewater, or solid waste facilities. Mr. Frye has represented city and county governments in numerous
citizen suits aimed at releases from wastewater management and solid waste facilities. He also has assisted in the defense of toxic tort
actions against a city in its role as public water supplier. Mr. Frye has made presentations on environmental liability issues to the American
Water Works Association and the Association of Metropolitan Sewerage Agencies.
Financial Institutions
Having represented both private and public financial institutions, Russell Frye brings valuable practical experience helping industrial and
commercial clients deal with environmental problems, and he understands issues from the perspective of both the lender and the borrower.
During the 1990s, when he headed up the environmental practice worldwide for multinational law firm Chardbourne & Parke, Mr. Frye
addressed numerous types of environmental issues arising in many different types of financings. He helped some of the world’s largest banks
develop mechanisms to minimize environmental liability exposure for sensitive projects (such as financing nuclear waste storage equipment)
and for complex, non-traditional financing structures (such as defeased-asset financing). He has advised both commercial banks and
multilateral development banks on the development of policies and procedures to identify projects and transactions with potential
environmental problems and to minimize both legal liability and public criticism for the lending institutions. Mr. Frye also has counseled
lenders involved in work-out situations where there were substantial environmental permitting, compliance or contamination concerns.
Food Products
Russell Frye has advised clients in the food products sector on both compliance with environmental laws and on food safety issues. He has
represented food additive producers, restaurant chains, cow/calf producers, chicken farmers, and pet food manufacturers. In this work, Russ
has become familiar with Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulation of direct and indirect food additives, standards for contaminants in
fish tissue and fish consumption advisories, FDA establishment regulations, and regulations under the Virus-Serum-Toxin Act. He has
successfully litigated against USDA actions allowing Canadian beef into the U.S. without sufficient analysis of the risk of transmitting Bovine
Spongiform Encephalopathy (“BSE” or “Mad Cow Disease”) and has negotiated with FDA on a variety of issues involving exposure to 2,3,7,8-
TCDD (“dioxin”). Recently, Mr. Frye has analyzed the potential for enforcement under the Emergency Planning and Community Right To Know
Act for failure of feedlots to notify EPA of releases of ammonia and other pollutants, as well as the impact of nutrient water quality standards
guidance on agriculture. He also is involved in issues arising from the use of treated wastewater for irrigated agriculture..
Forest Products
Russell Frye has extensive experience with all aspects of environmental issues in the forest products industry, representing the American
Forest & Paper Association, the National Council for Air & Stream Improvement, and numerous individual forest products companies. He was
the primary attorney advising the industry on EPA's "Cluster Rule," EPA and state responses to the discovery of dioxin discharges at bleached
pulp mills, regulation of methanol as a hazardous air pollutant, and other critical environmental issues for pulp and paper mills of the last two
decades. He has represented the forest products industry in EPA proceedings and litigation involving numerous issues concerning toxic and
bioaccumulative chemicals, such as water quality standards for dioxin and PCBs; water quality requirements for impaired waters (TMDLs) and
for the Great Lakes; regulation of isolated waters and wetlands; exposure to cellulose fiber and wood spores; emission standards for bark
boilers and black liquor recovery boilers; and the interrelationship of air pollution and water pollution control requirements for solid wood
facilities.
Mr. Frye has advised over a dozen forest products companies on environmental compliance, permitting for new and expanded facilities,
contaminated site cleanup, and environmental management and stewardship, and he has represented such companies in government
enforcement actions, citizen suits, litigation over allocation of liability for contaminated wood treating sites, and other types of litigation.
Recently, he has spent much of his time assisting pulp and paper mills and wood products plants with Clean Air Act enforcement and
permitting matters, as well as rulemaking and now litigation concerning Maximum Achievable Control Technology standards for plywood and
composite wood panel manufacturers.
Foundries and Steel Mills
Russell Frye has worked on environmental issues in the foundry industry for almost 25 years, representing both ferrous and non-ferrous
founders and die casters, as well as industry trade associations. He has worked on permitting for new foundries and major expansions,
foundry sand disposal permitting, remediation of and litigation concerning foundry waste sites, clean-up of hydraulic equipment leaks,
wastewater and stormwater discharge permitting, and similar issues for over a dozen foundries in seven or more states. In the mid-1980s, Mr.
Frye represented a foundry in a massive grand jury investigation that resulted in what was then the largest state criminal penalty for
hazardous waste violations.
Mr. Frye represented the American Foundry Society (AFS) and the Cast Metals Federation in connection with EPA’s 1985 promulgation of
effluent limitations guidelines and pretreatment standards for the Metal Molding and Casting point source category. More recently, he helped
negotiate a settlement on behalf of several metal casting trade associations that resulted in most foundries and die casters being excluded
from National Emissions Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants (NESHAPs) for the Secondary Aluminum Production source category. He
currently is helping represent AFS and the Steel Founders Society of America in a petition for review in the Court of Appeals for the District of
Columbia Circuit of NESHAPs (MACT standards) for the Iron and Steel Foundries source category.
As a result of Collier Shannon Scott, PLLC’s history of involvement in the iron and steel manufacturing sector, Mr. Frye advised the Steel
Manufacturers Association, the Specialty Steel Industry of North America, and the American Iron and Steel Institute on numerous
environmental matters, and he has represented those organizations in litigation challenging EPA regulations on new source review, cooling
water intake structures, and the like. He is currently the primary lawyer for Collier Shannon Scott’s representation of steel mills in challenges
in the D.C. Circuit of NESHAPs for the Iron and Steel Manufacturing and Taconite Iron Ore Production source categories. In addition, Mr. Frye
has worked on air pollution and wastewater discharge permitting issues for numerous individual steel mills. Mr. Frye also has experience with
steel service centers, having conducted environmental audits and advised on acquisitions and divestitures in that sector.
Metalworking and Machinery
Russell Frye has a deep understanding of the environmental issues faced by businesses that manufacture metal parts, products, and
machinery. In addition to his work with iron and steel mills and ferrous and non-ferrous foundries described above, he has represented
companies that manufacture a diverse range of products, including air conditioning equipment, automobiles and automotive parts, bicycles,
bottling equipment, cast iron pipe and copper tubing, copper and brass plumbing fittings, forklifts, hand tools, machine tools, valves, staplers
and staples, and steel doors.
Mr. Frye has been involved in both the development and the implementation and enforcement of many regulatory programs affecting
manufacturers, such as pretreatment requirements for discharges to municipal sewers, restrictions on emissions from coatings and adhesives,
management of PCB-containing electrical equipment and hydraulic equipment, solvent use and disposal, use and disposal of metalworking
fluids, use and recycling of solvents, and the management of various types of solid and hazardous waste.
Power Generation and Public Utilities
Throughout the 1990s, Russell Frye headed the environmental practice group worldwide for the multinational law firm Chadbourne & Parke,
which was one of the leaders in the independent power sector and project finance of power, water, and other infrastructure projects. As a
result, Mr. Frye has addressed environmental issues in permitting and financing of coal-fired power plants, combined-cycle natural gas
turbines, gas and coal cogeneration projects, incinerators, biomass-fired boilers, geothermal projects, and wind farms. Prior to that, he
advised one of the partners in the first-ever conversion of a nuclear power plant to fossil fuel. Language Mr. Frye drafted to provide fair
treatment to cogenerators in the acid rain control program was incorporated into the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990, and he subsequently
brought successful litigation in the Court of Appeals to force EPA to withdraw an overly restrictive definition of cogeneration in its
regulations implementing the acid rain amendments. More recently, Mr. Frye has been involved in rulemaking and litigation concerning
technology requirements for cooling water intake structures at electric generating stations and other large facilities.
Having advised numerous multinational commercial banks and several development banks and export credit agencies on environmental issues
in financing power plants, Mr. Frye appreciates the concerns of lenders and the public about such projects. He has been involved in all
aspects of siting and permitting landfills for municipal waste and industrial waste and has represented landfill operators in enforcement
actions and toxic tort claims. He has negotiated or litigated matters concerning many environmental issues in the utility sector, including
nitrogen oxides (NOx) controls, ash disposal, beneficial use of fly ash and wastewater treatment plant sludge, landfill leachate management,
and water and wastewater treatment plant sludge disposal. He has been involved in litigation both challenging and defending the quality of
water supplied by public and private water utilities and has represented wastewater treatment utilities in public and private enforcement
actions, permit negotiation, and permit appeals.
Trade Associations
Russell Frye has represented national trade associations and business organizations since the early 1980s. In some cases, he regularly provides
such organizations with environmental, antitrust, and general litigation advice, while in other instances he has been retained by the
organization, or by an ad hoc coalition of such organizations, to provide representation on a particular rulemaking, judicial challenge to
agency action, or participation in appellate litigation as an amicus curiae. Mr. Frye has advised trade associations on document creation and
retention policies, antitrust compliance, attorney-client privilege and joint defense agreement issues, use of the Freedom of Information Act
(FOIA), lobbying strategy and regulations, defending and mitigating the risk of toxic tort actions, and numerous other issues that trade
associations face. He has represented both industry and business associations, and technical and scientific associations. Mr. Frye currently is
representing, for example, an ad hoc coalition of 13 trade associations and business organizations as intervenors in litigation aimed at forcing
EPA to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from automobiles, whose members range from the American Petroleum Institute to the National
Association of Convenience Stores.
For a detailed description of Russ Frye’s experience with various areas of environmental, health, and safety law, as well as administrative law
and litigation and alternative dispute resolution, click here.
For more specific examples of matters Russ Frye has worked on and the types of EHS services that FryeLaw PLLC can provide, click here.
For a list of representative clients, comments about Russ Frye and FryeLaw PLLC by others, and examples of successes Russ has obtained for
his clients, click here.
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