Experience

Melissa Foster is an associate in the Stoel Rives Resources, Development and Environment group in the firm's Sacramento office. She focuses her practice on regulatory compliance and permitting involving water quality and air quality issues, as well as environmental, land use and real property litigation.

Associate, Downey Brand LLP, Sacramento, 2003-2006; law clerk, California State Water Resources Control Board, Office of Chief Counsel, Sacramento, summers 2001, 2002; research assistant, Ocean and Coastal Law Center, University of Oregon School of Law, 2002-2003.

Representative Work

Regulatory Compliance

• Advises clients on water quality, National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permitting, air quality and regulatory compliance issues related to power plant development involving the California Energy Commission.
• Advises clients regarding the appropriate scope of environmental due diligence in real property acquisition transactions.
• Advises clients in filing claims for reimbursement of costs related to the cleanup of contamination from underground storage tanks pursuant to California's Underground Storage Tank (UST) Program.
• Represents clients before Regional Water Quality Control Boards and the State Water Resources Control Board related to water quality issues, stormwater management and pollution control, NPDES permitting, waste discharge requirements, and UST Program claims.

Environmental Litigation

• Handles title disputes for various insurers and insureds in California state courts.
• Represents clients (both petitioners and respondents) in litigation under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA).
• Represents clients in citizen suit actions filed pursuant to the Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act.
• Represents clients in hazardous waste litigation filed pursuant to the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA).

Professional Honors & Activities

• Editor and author, Environmental Liability, Enforcement & Penalties Reporter, 2008-2010
• Editor and author, Climate Change Law & Policy Reporter, 2008-2010
• Case summary contributor, California Land Use Policy & Law Reporter, 2007-2008
• California representative, Stoel Rives Associate Committee, 2007-2009
• Oregon Law Review, Distinguished Service Award, 2003
• Oregon Law Review, Maxine Lee Award for Editorial Excellence, 2002
• Member, California State Bar Environmental Section
• Member, Sacramento County Bar Association
• Member, Groundwater Resources Association of California

Civic Activities

• Member, Reunion Steering Committee, University of Oregon School of Law, 2008-2009
• Member, Board of Directors, Happy Tails Pet Sanctuary, 2005-2006

Publications

• Author, "It Is Not Too Late: The Need for a Comprehensive International Treaty to Protect the Arctic Environment," Georgetown International Environmental Law Review, 2003.

Education

• University of Oregon School of Law, J.D., 2003
  Managing editor and staff writer, Oregon Law Review
  Statements of Completion in Environmental and Natural Resources Law, and Ocean and Coastal Law
• University of California, Davis, B.A., 1999

Admissions

• California
• U.S. District Court for the Central, Eastern and Northern Districts of California
• U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit

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