Harvey M. Sheldon

Harvey Sheldon has extensive experience in the field of environmental law, including counseling, litigation, and risk management issues for business and local government entities.

Harvey Sheldon also handles business and real estate related risks related to environmental liability questions in transactions and negotiations for clients. He has represented private clients ranging from individuals and entrepreneurial companies to Fortune 100 corporations and major financial institutions. He has appeared in both federal and state trial courts and in courts of appeals in environmental and other matters, civil and criminal.

He has a Martindale AV, preeminent rating. Harvey also has an Alternative Dispute Resolution practice in which he has mediated complex multi-party environmental litigation matters nationally. He is a certified circuit court mediator in Florida, and court registered in Illinois.

Harvey is a graduate of Amherst College and Harvard Law School. He has gained peer recognition as “Super Lawyer” and Leading Attorney. Harvey is admitted to the Bar in both Florida and Illinois.

Land Use and Governmental Law

Mr. Sheldon can handle your land use, zoning, annexation and permitting issues with local county and state government. He has experience with both commercial and industrial real estate issues.

Professional Background

After early success in general practice and as a special prosecutor, Harvey was appointed Chief of the Illinois Attorney General’s Environmental Enforcement Division supervising 20 lawyers and a staff of investigators in the representation of the state and the Illinois EPA.  He supervised a docket of hundreds of proceedings that involved air, water, and land pollution cases.

His environmental enforcement work helped set precedents on the federal common law regarding water pollution in interstate waters in cases such as Illinois v. Milwaukee. Harvey filed the state’s amicus curiae brief that urged the Supreme Court to require rules on the prevention of significant deterioration as part of the Clean Air Act regulatory scheme (Sierra Club et al. v. Ruckelshaus). He directed and advised attorneys and investigators, tried environmental enforcement matters in court and administrative hearings, and argued cases on appeal in state and federal courts.

Harvey also served as the Regional Counsel of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Region 5 (Midwest Region) office in Chicago. As such he was the principal EPA attorney for six Midwest states: Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, and Wisconsin. Harvey worked with state legislatures and agencies, and assisted enforcement attorneys and United States Attorneys in important enforcement actions. Harvey also recommended Congress improve the legislative criteria for federal grants to upgrade public water treatment plants, and otherwise advised the Regional Administrator on numerous issues.

Harvey’s public counsel continued even after he entered private practice. He served for a time as Special Counsel to the Illinois Department of Mines & Minerals, helping the department develop the state’s surface coal mining regulation program.

In more than forty years of private practice he has broad experience within the environmental, governmental and land use areas that includes negotiations over environmental risks in transactions, regulatory compliance advice and litigation, permitting, zoning, rulemaking and advocating for legislative changes at local, state, and federal levels.

Honors & Awards

• Selected in a poll conducted by American Research Corporation as a Leading Attorney in the field of Land Use and Environmental Law
• Holds the AV® Peer Review Rating from Martindale-Hubbell, its highest rating for ethics and legal ability
• Recognized on the Super Lawyers list by Illinois Super Lawyers magazine, 2005-2009, 2013-2020
• Recognized by his peers as a “Leading Lawyer” in the areas of Environmental Law; and Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) Law: Commercial Real Estate, Environmental & Construction Law

Profile

Harvey has been engaged in the private practice of law, concentrating on environmental law, for more than 25 years, primarily on behalf of business clients. Harvey’s environmental litigation experience includes the following:

CERCLA

• Established national precedent that CERCLA Section 107 cost recovery rights are available to potentially responsible parties for voluntary cleanup efforts. (Metropolitan Water Reclamation District v. North American Galvanizing and Coatings, Inc., 473 F.3d 824 (7th Cir. 2007)).
• Extensive service on steering committees at multiple CERCLA sites nationally.
• Defended FMC Naval Armaments’ facility in two major Superfund actions in Minnesota. The FMC foundry was allegedly the largest PRP and was allegedly responsible for a share reaching tens of millions of dollars. Harvey obtained a 90 percent allocation reduction in contested proceedings over the toxicity of FMC’s foundry sands.
• Defended Standard T Chemical Company, a former Montgomery Ward paint-making subsidiary, from Superfund liability at the Midco sites (U.S. v Midwest Solvent Recovery, USDC Hammond). Harvey served as the lead negotiator on the steering committee and successfully defended the client against alleged violation of Section 106 Orders.

CLEAN AIR ACT

• Defended major equipment manufacturer against alleged Clean Air Act violations with six-figure penalty demands at one of its key Peoria, Illinois, manufacturing plants. The case was successfully settled short of trial before the Pollution Control Board, with variance granted to the client and an acceptable five-figure penalty.
• Defended the largest can company worldwide in State of Illinois proceedings before the Pollution Control Board and EPA administrative proceedings.
• Defended paper company against alleged New Source Review violations at its main manufacturing facility in Green Bay, Wisconsin. Harvey achieved an acceptable settlement in the low-six-figure range in the face of a multi-million demand by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ)
• Successfully defending Paving Company against alleged nuisance and major source permit violations in a high-profile case brought by the Illinois Attorney General, Cook County States’ Attorney, and Village of Hillside, Illinois.

RCRA

• Defended electroplating client against a state criminal complaint of illegal transport and disposal.
• Defended Chemical Company against EPA multimedia (RCRA, Air Water, Deep well) multiple, multimillion-dollar claims against a Mississippi organic chemical plant, which included both civil and criminal actions of the EPA and DOJ.
• Defended a private Illinois chemical manufacturer against state court RCRA claims.
• Assisted in defending a chemical company against state administrative board RCRA claims.
• Pursuing RCRA claims on behalf of the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago against a former tenant.
• Defended printed circuit board manufacturer in Minnesota against EPA Notice of Violation.

CLEAN WATER ACT

• Defended a major plumbing manufacturer against a Wisconsin citizen’s suit under the Clean Water Act regarding alleged NPDES violations.
• Defended numerous clients regarding alleged pre-treatment violations and unlawful discharges to publicly owned treatment works.
• Defended engineering firm against a Clean Water Act citizen’s suit alleging its responsibility for sewage backups in the City of Chicago (N.D. III.).

EPCRA/SARA TITLE III

• Defended against and settled EPA citations of alleged failures to report releases by various chemical companies, a food processing firm, and other clients.

Presentations

Harvey has frequently lectured on environmental law topics and taught the subject of environmental law at The John Marshall Law School and at Loyola University School of Law.

Publications

Harvey is a contributing editor of Eastern Water Law & Policy Reporter, a national periodical.

He is the author of “Common Law Remedies,” a chapter in the American Bar Association’s 2012 edition of “Environmental Issues in Business Transactions,” and “Common Law Approaches to Environmental Damage Claims,” a chapter in the 2011 edition.

Harvey has also written extensively on topics related to environmental law. His publications include:

• “Ninth Circuit Finds Pollution from Wells to the Pacific Ocean Constituted Point Sources under the Clean Water Act-the Stage May Be Set for U.S. Supreme Court Determination,” Eastern Water Law & Policy Reporter, Volume 13, Number 2, March 2018
• “Unanimous Supreme Court Rules ‘Waters of the United States’ Challenges are Jurisdictional with the U.S. Districts Courts,” Eastern Water Law & Policy Reporter, Volume 13, Number 1, February 2018
• “District Court Finds Mississippi Numerical Mater Quality Standards are not Compelled by the Clean Water Act.,” Eastern Water Law & Policy Reporter, Volume 12, Number 1, February 2017
• “West Virginia and Maryland Agree on the Riparian Use of the Potomac River,” Eastern Water Law & Policy Reporter, Volume 11, Number 11, January 2017
• Eastern Water Law & Policy Reporter, Volume 11, Number 9, November 2016
• “Likely Ninth Circuit Case on Appeal Over the Clean Water Act and ‘Significant Nexus’ Applicability May Portend the Fate of the Scope of the Act Nationwide,” Eastern Water Law & Policy Reporter, Volume 11, Number 8, October 2016
• “Flint Michigan Drinking Water Crisis Continues to Spawn Legal Activity,” Eastern Water Law & Policy Reporter, Volume 11, Number 7, August/September 2016