Christopher D. Thomas practices environmental litigation, mediation and counseling on behalf of corporate, industrial and municipal clients throughout the United States. His practice is concentrated in the areas of hazardous substances, hazardous waste, groundwater contamination, industrial compliance, environmental permitting for new and expanded facilities, and the environmental aspects of real estate and corporate transactions. It covers the major federal environmental statutes including the Comprehensive Environmental Response Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA), the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), the Clean Water Act and the Clean Air Act, as well as numerous state counterparts and tort theories.

Mr. Thomas has defended or prosecuted cases under CERCLA, RCRA, and parallel state law and tort theories pertaining to more than 30 sites throughout the country. He has directed the completion of remedial investigations and feasibility studies and negotiated consent decrees and agreements with the US Environmental Protection Agency, the US Department of Justice and parallel state agencies.

His clients have included companies in the paper, natural gas transmission, semiconductor manufacturing, specialty chemical, base metals, mineral processing, heavy manufacturing, real estate and hazardous waste recycling industries, and a variety of municipalities including the City of Phoenix, Arizona.

Mr. Thomas is one of seven members of the Arizona Governor’s Regulatory Review Council, which provides final review of proposed state agency rules. He serves as a disciplinary hearing officer for the Arizona Supreme Court and is a former member of the State Bar’s Rules of Professional Conduct Committee. Mr. Thomas has served on the boards of the nonprofit Arizona Center for Disability Law, The Nature Conservancy, Arizona Chapter and the Upward Foundation school for special needs children.

Mr. Thomas is a member of the American Bar Association’s Litigation and Environment, Energy and Resources Sections and the State Bar of Arizona’s Environmental and Natural Resources Law Section. He is listed in The International Who’s Who of Environment Lawyers 2009, Chambers USA: America’s Leading Business Lawyers 2009, The Best Lawyers in America 2010 and Southwest Super Lawyers 2009.

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• Representing El Paso Corporation Western Pipelines on environmental regulatory matters including engagements regarding the new Arizona hazardous air pollutant regulations and El Paso’s proposed natural gas storage project in rural Arizona.
• Negotiating the first prospective lessee agreement with the United States on behalf of the developer of a luxury resort within the former Empire Canyon mine site in Deer Valley, Utah, in a transaction that served as a pilot project for EPA’s new Environmentally Responsible Redevelopment and Reuse (ER3) program.
• Representing the owner of a former copper mine and uranium mill in southern Arizona on issues arising out of EPA’s assessment of the site for potential NPL listing and regulation of an industrial tenant under Arizona’s aquifer protection permit program.
• Defending MeadWestvaco, former owner of several Alabama iron foundries, in a multiparty CERCLA case regarding PCB and lead contamination in Anniston, Alabama, and in negotiation of an administrative consent agreement with EPA Region IV calling for removal of lead and PCB contamination in residential yards.
• Defending General Electric Company in a CERCLA cost recovery action brought by Honeywell, Inc., the purchaser of a computer assembly facility in Phoenix.
• Representing the City of Phoenix in CERCLA cost recovery, cleanup and negotiations matters pertaining to the 19th Avenue Landfill, Estes Landfill, Motorola 52nd Street, Sky Harbor Airport and Phoenix-Goodyear Airport hazardous substance sites including litigation resulting in recovery of US$29.2 million of response costs and a successful, precedent-setting trustee liability case that prompted Congressional amendment of CERCLA.
• Representing OM Group, the world’s largest cobalt producer, with regard to RCRA enforcement by EPA Region VIII and a Bureau of Indian Affairs lease proceeding pertaining to the OMG Apex cobalt-tungsten recycling facility on tribal land near St. George, Utah.
• Representing paper industry leader MeadWestvaco Corporation in the successful mediation of alleged liability pertaining to the Kalamazoo River Superfund site, an NPL-listed site containing 83 miles of PCB-impacted river sediment.
• Representing a leading national home builder in land use litigation arising out of a newly incorporated city’s attempt to assess impact fees precluded by a pre-existing development agreement between the builder and the city’s predecessor county.
• Representing rapidly growing Goodyear, Arizona on litigation and counseling matters pertaining to the Phoenix-Goodyear Airport Superfund Site, where solvent and perchlorate contamination has impacted the city’s well field.