Christopher B. Pepper

Principal
(512) 322-5825
cpepper@lglawfirm.com

Christopher B. Pepper is a member of the Air and Waste Practice Group. He is also a licensed patent attorney. Chris helps clients with air quality and environmental permitting matters. He provides clients with advice about environmental laws and regulatory programs implemented by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ).

Chris has a track record of working with clients from all stages of the permitting process. He assists clients with the initial air permit application, the technical review process, and the public notice and meeting process. In some cases, he assists clients with the contested case hearing process at the State Office of Administrative Hearings (SOAH).

Chris’ technical background and life experiences allow him to bring a unique perspective to client matters. He was a Staff Attorney in the Air and Water Quality Sections of the Offices of Legal Services at the TCEQ. He also worked as a Senior Research Associate with the Institute of Environmental and Human Health in Lubbock, Texas, where he was a member of the Vector-borne Zoonoses Laboratory. He lives in Lakeway, Texas, and is a member of the Lake Travis United Methodist Church.

Chris’ legal practice is dedicated to serving business owners on compliance matters concerning the Texas Clean Air Act. He has experience advising clients on other TCEQ regulatory programs such as Edwards Aquifer Water Pollution Abatement Plans, Emission Banking and Trading Programs, and Environmental Enforcement and Compliance History Reviews. He assists clients with rules and policies implemented by EPA, MSHA, OSHA, the Comptroller’s Office, the Texas Department of Transportation (TXDOT), and the Texas Department of Agriculture (TDA). His clients have included cement kilns, feed mills, steel mills, tank farms, concrete batch plants, biodiesel plants, fertilizer warehouses, automobile shredders, sand and gravel plants, and limestone quarries. He has proven that he can handle multiple client projects simultaneously without compromising quality of service.

Areas of Practice

Representative Experience

Air Permits

Represented a precast concrete company located in Harris County, Texas, in a contested hearing for an air quality permit for a specialty mix batch plant (2008).
Represented an aggregates company located in Comal County, Texas, through all phases of the HB801 permit application and public participation process for a contested New Source Review (NSR Permit (2011).
Represented a steel pipe manufacturing company in a contested air quality permit application for a new pipe mill and associated electric arc furnace in San Patricio County, Texas (2010).
Assists multiple rock crushing, concrete batch plants, feed mills and fertilizer warehouses with air quality permit amendments, permit alterations and permit reaffirmations (2005-present).

Environmental Audits

Performed on-site environmental audits at steel fabrication facilities, fertilizer warehouses and concrete batch plants throughout Texas using Texas' Environmental Health and Safety Audit Privilege Act (2006-present).
Assisted clients with verifying environmental compliance for new acquisitions by performing air quality environmental audits of plant production records, pollution control equipment, and various TPDES, PSD, NSR and PBR recordkeeping requirements (2011).

Environmental Litigation

Assists clients with comprehensive air quality litigation strategies, including communication techniques, on-site environmental risk and exposure assessments, and with dust and particulate matter air quality studies (2007-present).
Represents multiple clients in the agriculture and aggregates industries with contested SOAH hearings (2007-present) that are subject to the Texas Rules of Civil Procedure and the Teas Rules of Evidence.

Emergency Response

Responded to spills and emission events at various manufacturing, chemical, and aggregate facilities in Texas to verify compliance with TCEQ's Emission Event Reporting Rules in 30 Texas Administrative Code Chapter 101 and with TCEQ's Spill Prevention and Control Rules in 30 Texas Administrative Code Chapter 327 (2009-2010).
Assists clients with 24-hour reporting obligations under the STEERS electronic reporting system (2005-present).

Public Outreach

Represents clients at TCEQ Public Meetings, Informational Meetings, and Commission Agendas associated with TCEQ air quality rules, SIP ozone planning, and new TCEQ rulemaking activities such as the standard air quality permits for the agriculture and concrete production industries (2008-present).
Assists clients with developing effective public communication strategies with elected officials, regional economic development office, and environmental advocacy groups (2005-present).

Professional Licenses and Education

Admitted to State Bar of Texas (2002)
J.D., Texas Tech School of Law (2001); President - Student Bar Association
M.S. - Environmental Toxicology, Texas Tech University (2001); Member - Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry
B.A. - Biology, Texas A&M University (1997); Commander, Company P-2 - Corps of Cadets
Registered Patent Attorney - United States Patent and Trademark Office (2004)

Professional Associations and Memberships

Air and Waste Management Association
Animal Law, Environmental and Natural Resources, and Intellectual Property Law Sections - State Bar of Texas
Texas Aggregates and Concrete Association; Vice-Chairman, Allied Board of Directors
Texas Ag Industries Association
Texas Grain & Feed Association

Publications

Christopher Pepper, Thomas R. Rainwater, Steven G. Platt, Jennifer Dever, Scott T. McMurry, and Todd Anderson. "Organochlorine Pesticides in Chorioallantoic Membranes of Morelet's Crocodile Eggs from Belize." Journal Of Wildlife Diseases 40(3), 2004, pp. 493-500.
Christopher Pepper, Marc Nascarella, Eric Marsland, John Montford, Laura Wood, Steve Cox, Carrie Bradford, Teresa Burns, and Steve Presley. "Threatened or Endangered? Keystone Species or Public Health Threat? The Black-Tailed Prairie Dog, the Endangered Species Act, and the Imminent Threat of Bubonic Plague." Journal Of Land, Resources, & Environmental Law 24(3) 2004, pp. 355-391.
Christopher Pepper, Marc Nascarella, and Ronald Kendall. "A Review of the Effects of Aircraft Noise on Wildlife and Humans, Current Control Mechanisms, and the Need for Further Study" Environmental Management 32 (4), 2003, pp. 418-432.
Christopher Pepper, Nathan Block, and Sadika Baladi. "Deciding How Clean is Clean Enough Under the Texas Law of Risk-Based Corrective Action." Federal Facilities Environmental Journal 14(2), 2003, pp. 57-76.
Nick A. Miersma, Christopher Pepper, and Todd Anderson. "Organochlorine Pesticides in Elementary School Yards Along the Texas-Mexico Border." Environmental Pollution 126, 2003, pp. 65-71.
Nathan Block and Christopher Pepper. "Why Nero Fiddled While Rome Burned: What Every Environmental Lawyer Should Know About the Science of Environmental Toxicology and Risk Assessment." St. B. Tex. Envtl. L.J. 32 (189), Summer 2002.
Steven M. Presley, Christopher Pepper, Galen P. Austin, and Ronald J. Kendall. "Chapter One: State of the Science: Background, History, and Current Threats." "Advances in Biological and Chemical Terrorism Countermeasures." CRC Press- Taylor Francis, LLC (in press).

Print a PDF of this page

^ Back to Attorneys