State Regulation of PFAS in Drinking Water: Testing, Restrictions, and Liability in California, New York, and More

Mr. Lee is leader of the firm’s PFAS and Proposition 65 teams. He regularly works with clients in a variety of industries including real estate investment and development, food and agriculture, retail and consumer products, and chemical manufacturing and distribution. Mr. Lee’s practice focuses on three main areas: transactional work, compliance counseling, and enforcement defense. In his transactional work he represents buyers and sellers of real estate and corporate entities that are impacted by environmental conditions or related liability, with a particular focus on brownfield acquisition and redevelopment. Mr. Lee takes projects from initial due diligence, through contract drafting, closing, and post-closing remediation and regulatory closure, all with an eye towards balancing the costs and risks posed by the environmental conditions. Mr. Lee is the founder and editor of the firms’ Emerging Contaminants/Emerging Solutions blog, and writes and lectures regularly on a variety of topics including Proposition 65 and the developing regulation of PFAS.

Dr. Rackl is a scientist and environmental engineer with a broad interdisciplinary technical and academic background in the areas of engineering, microbiology, chemistry, and ecology. Her research and work experience since the late 1990s have focused on evaluating technologies and practices related to water and other environmental media. She has applied her expertise to the development of new products; conducting business case analyses; and communicating with boards of directors, investors, regulators, legal counsel and policy makers. Dr. Rackl excels at gathering and interpreting interdisciplinary technical data and information in a wide range of scientific areas and understanding and communicating its relevance to regulators, legal counsel and other and non-technical colleagues. Dr. Rackl also specializes in California and other state-specific science and regulatory matters, including California’s “Proposition 65”, drinking water quality and supply challenges and agricultural product compliance. Dr. Rackl has particularly extensive expertise in the research, development, manufacturing scale-up and registration of biopesticides.

Mr. Gardella’s practice focuses on environmental litigation and compliance matters, as well as the litigation of products liability and toxic torts cases (asbestos, talc, lead paint, benzene) matters. His environmental work includes representation of companies in CERCLA, Safe Drinking Water Act, Clean Water Act, and numerous state level environmental regulatory matters. These matters range from litigation to compliance planning and audits to ensure corporate compliance objectives are met. In addition, for the past five years, Mr. Gardella has focused his practice on the emerging issue of PFAS, and is regularly invited to speak about PFAS at conferences, to consulting and risk analyst groups, and in-house to insurance companies and businesses. His thought leadership and predictive analytical skills with respect to PFAS risks and litigation trends earned him and his PFAS team at CMBG3 the honor of being the only law firm in the country that was recognized as a thought leader on PFAS in 2020 by the National Law Review.