Mr. Fortuna’s recent experience includes:
WATER AND WATER RIGHTS
- Representing the City of Atlanta and other public water authorities in the “Tri-State Water Wars” litigation, involving challenges by Alabama, Florida and others to the management and operation of federal reservoirs that serve as metropolitan Atlanta’s primary water supply sources.
- Representing a public water authority in litigation with the State of Alabama and others challenging its Clean Water Act § 404 permit to construct a major new water supply reservoir.
- Representing a county government in connection with the Clean Water Act § 404 permitting and development of a pump-storage water supply reservoir in the Coosa River Basin.
- Representing metropolitan Atlanta’s central planning agency in challenges to Alabama Power Company’s request for new 50-year licenses to operate ten different hydropower dams on the Coosa and Tallapoosa Rivers before the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
- Successfully representing a coalition of environmental groups pro bono in a case challenging the Environmental Protection Agency’s decision to issue a “veto” under Clean Water Act § 404 for the “Yazoo Pumps,” a large and controversial flood control project in the Mississippi Delta.
- Representing a public water authority in its request to reallocate storage in a federal reservoir to water supply under the Water Supply Act of 1958.
WETLANDS AND COASTAL PERMITTING
- Preparing and submitting detailed comments on behalf of the Georgia Chamber of Commerce concerning recent Environmental Protection Agency and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers guidance expanding regulatory jurisdiction under the Clean Water Act.
- Successfully represented marina developers before the Georgia Supreme Court in a challenge to a permit issued under the Georgia Coastal Marshlands Protection Act, obtaining a landmark decision limiting the ability to regulate upland areas under the Act.
- Successfully represented county in litigation over permits to construct a marina to be operated through a public-private partnership.
- Successfully represented a community association resolving a challenge to its Georgia Coastal Marshlands Protection Act permit to construct a community dock in connection with its residential development.
- Advised clients on matters relating to development of coastal properties, permitting requirements and other issues.
ENDANGERED SPECIES
- Obtained summary judgment on all claims by the State of Florida and others that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ reservoir operations jeopardized endangered and threatened species inhabiting the Apalachicola River downstream in Florida.
CERCLA
- Obtained summary judgment in favor of parent company on all CERCLA and state-law tort claims in multi-party litigation relating to a site in Charleston, S.C. owned and operated by its former subsidiary.
AIR PERMITTING
- Advising energy companies in complex air permitting matters under the federal Clean Air Act and the Georgia Air Quality Act.
- Representing energy companies in separate litigation and appeals concerning permits to construct two new coal-fired power plants in Georgia.
- Obtained summary judgment in favor of energy company on challenges to an extension of the construction deadline in its PSD permit for a new coal-fired power plant in Early County, Georgia.
