J. Stanton Curry

Shareholder


J. Stanton Curry

For more than 35 years, Stan has helped companies achieve and maintain regulatory compliance with federal, state, tribal, and county environmental and natural resource laws.  His detailed legal analysis, factual understanding, creativity, and communication skills allow him to integrate into his clients’ interdisciplinary teams in the mining, energy, and manufacturing industries.  Because of his collaborative and rigorous approach to problem solving, Stan has helped clients achieve their objectives in areas such as environmental remediation, environmental permitting, compliance planning, compliance auditing, settlement of notices of violation, and environmental rulemakings.

Notably, Stan delivers extensive and proven skills in the remediation of mining and smelting sites in Arizona, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, and New Jersey.  He has worked for over a decade on mine remediation projects within two Native American nations, as well as advised on significant air permitting and compliance projects in Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Iowa, and Connecticut, including in-depth major source PSD/NSR, PSD increment, MACT and Class I Area designation issues.  In addition, Stan has provided compliance and auditing services for facilities in over 17 states and in Canada.

Representative Experience

  • Representing for over 10 years the owner of a current copper mine performing removal and remedial actions under CERCLA on the Tohono O’odham Nation in Arizona.
  • Representing for over 10 years a working party performing investigation and response actions under CERCLA at former uranium mines on the Navajo Nation.
  • Member of interdisciplinary team for over 10 years representing the owner of a former copper smelter that is one of five working parties at the Newtown Creek sediment site in New York City, a federal Superfund “Mega-Site.”
  • Representing the working party performing the environmental response at a 330 acre former chrome smelter site in Ohio.
  • Representing the owner of a current copper mine in Arizona over the 30-year ongoing life-cycle of a major groundwater remediation project.
  • Representing a client in mine lease negotiations with a Native American nation, BIA, and BLM.
  • Representing for over 8 years the working party in the environmental response to groundwater contamination from a former molybdenum operation in the New Jersey Pinelands.
  • Settling an enforcement action for a manufacturing facility constructed without an air permit.
  • Leading a coalition of eight trade associations in the administrative challenge and then the successful court challenge of unauthorized air quality regulations.
  • Successful court challenge of EPA’s establishment of a Clean Air Act Class I Area.
  • Successful court challenge of county denial of air permit exemption for a recycling plant
  • Negotiating the Arizona Air Quality Act as part of a business coalition.

Bar & Court Admissions

  • Arizona, 1983
  • Washington, 2021
  • U.S. District Court, District of Arizona, 1984
  • U.S. Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit, 1991

Associations & Memberships

  • State Bar of Arizona, Member
  • State Bar of Washington, Member
  • State Bar of Arizona, Environmental and Natural Resources Law Section, Founder
  • State Bar of Arizona, Environmental and Natural Resources Law Section, Past Executive Council and Current Member
  • Arizona Chamber of Commerce, Air Quality Subcommittee, Past Co-Chair
  • Arizona Chamber of Commerce, Hazardous Waste Subcommittee, Past Chair
  • Arizona State University, Center for Environmental Studies, Adjunct Faculty
  • Arizona Mining Association, Air Quality Committee, Member
  • HAZwaste Society, Founder
  • J. Reuben Clark Law Society, Member

Honors & Awards

  • AV Preeminent Peer Review Rating, Martindale-Hubbell
  • Best Lawyers in America®, Environmental Law, 1993-2024
  • Chambers USA®, 2004-2023
  • Certificate of Achievement, Environmental Justice, University of East Anglia, 2021
  • Best Lawyers' Phoenix Environmental Lawyer of the Year, 2012
  • Southwest Super Lawyers®, Environmental, 2007-2015
  • Az Business Magazine, Arizona's Top Lawyers - Environmental Law, 2013, 2014
  • Arizona's Finest Lawyers, 2011
  • "The International Who's Who of Environment Lawyers", 2011
  • Marquis Who's Who, "Who's Who in American Law"

Press Releases