Water Quality Compliance: Multistate Support for Complex Needs

Nicole Granquist
Partner, Environment

Abstract

Nicole Granquist, a partner in the Sacramento office of Stoel Rives, shares insights from her water quality-focused practice, which includes advising clients on Clean Water Act compliance and state-level water regulations. With experience in municipal and industrial wastewater and stormwater issues, Granquist highlights how Stoel Rives offers a rare blend of personal connection and nationwide depth—making it uniquely equipped to serve clients with multistate operations.

She emphasizes the firm’s cross-disciplinary strength, noting that clients benefit not only from local expertise but also from seamless collaboration across offices in Portland, Seattle, Boise, and beyond. This reach allows her to support facilities nationwide, from California to Texas to Washington, and deliver practical, client-focused solutions in areas ranging from hazardous waste to air quality. For Granquist, the firm’s integrated approach and exceptional talent have been key to expanding her practice and meeting increasingly complex environmental compliance needs.

Transcript

My name is Nicole Granquist. I’m a partner in the Sacramento office of Stoel Rives, and my practice is primarily water quality, Clean Water Act, and state regulation of water quality, whether it’s municipal wastewater, municipal stormwater, industrial process water, industrial stormwater, or construction stormwater.

I have now been at the firm for almost a year, joining really because of the diversification of the natural resources practice. I think Stoel is one of the most unique firms because it isn’t a huge mega-firm where you won’t know folks and you can’t have those sort of personal relationships and feel like you know folks who might be working in other states or in other areas. But it’s large enough that you really have the depth of practice that you need in order to provide good customer service these days.

Client service is key. That is what we’re here to do. And so when a client comes and says, “I have this issue or that issue,” whether it’s an air issue, whether it’s a hazardous waste issue, whether it’s a water quality issue, no matter what it is, we’ve got renowned experts. And regardless of where they’re located, whether they’re in Portland, whether they’re in Boise, whether they’re in Seattle, California, other places, we’ve got folks who can take those issues, tackle them and provide the client with what they need. And that was, I think, an exceptional strength of the firm and what drew me to join the firm, and I’ve been very pleased with how that process has gone along with respect to cross-marketing, being able to have our clients be served in a variety of ways that you yourself, because of the limitations of knowing your own practice only, you need that depth, in order to be able to provide sort of one-stop shopping.

What’s really nice too is that with respect to many clients who have multiple locations, multiple facilities that are nationwide, being able to say, “I can help you with that facility in Washington, I can help you with that facility in Texas,” and there’s going to be an expert who has some familiarity with that area has been, I think, a real bonus to my practice, and it has been able to allow me to expand my practice and expand the clients that I’m working with, even outside of California. So that’s been a benefit. And of course, the professionalism, the level of talent, and the skill of the other attorneys here at Stoel has exceeded my expectations since I’ve been here. And so that’s been just a delight.