Water & Wastewater Management

Overview

Water and wastewater project financings vary significantly in how they are structured. Clients need counsel that is thorough, creative, and persistent. We have served as bond counsel, underwriter’s and disclosure counsel, and local borrower’s counsel in connection with water pollution control and safe drinking water revolving funds, and pooled loan municipal financings across the country. We have also represented municipalities, underwriters, and private water and sewer companies in connection with privatizations of investor-owned water utilities.

Our knowledge and practice experience related to water projects encompasses all of the important project aspects, including developing core contract documents, obtaining workable environmental permits, providing tax advice, managing real estate, and more.

Representative Experience

• Developers of drinking water and wastewater facility We work on the contracting, financing, and development of facilities throughout the United States.
• New York City Municipal Water Finance Authority Serving as counsel, we established a variable rate bond structure, established multiple commercial paper programs, and developed a mechanism through the use of subordinate bonds to achieve direct user rate relief from the operating surplus of prior-year operations.
• State of Connecticut’s Clean Water Revolving Loan Program Serving as counsel, our firm played key roles in structuring Connecticut’s wastewater fund, as well as clean and safe drinking water fund programs.
• Puerto Rico Aqueduct and Sewer Authority Serving as bond counsel on the authority’s first public offering in 18 years ($1.3 billion of senior lien bonds), we drafted master indenture, which made allowance for five separate liens of indebtedness and inter-creditor documentation for existing secured and unsecured indebtedness.
• Builder/operator of seawater desalination project We drafted and negotiated the construction and long-term operating contracts for this Florida-based project.
• Several Rhode Island communities Negotiated an agreement with USEPA that resulted in the design, construction, and financing of the state’s first regional publicly owned wastewater treatment facility.
• District of Columbia Water and Sewer Authority We are conducting an environmental due diligence review on behalf of the underwriter.

Recognition

• Nixon Peabody has been named a Tier 1 National firm for Public Finance Law in the 2025 edition of Best Law Firms®.
• Nixon Peabody has been named a Tier 1 National firm for Environmental Law and Public Finance Law in the 2024 edition of Best Law Firms®.
• The Legal 500 United States 2024 editorial—ranked for Project finance - Infrastructure and PPP
• Ranked in Chambers USA for Public Finance—Nationwide and also in California, District of Columbia, Illinois, New York.
• Nixon Peabody was named by U.S. News/Best Lawyers® 2021 as “Law Firm of the Year” in Public Finance Law.
• Consistently ranked Top 10 in bond counsel, underwriter’s counsel, disclosure counsel, special tax counsel, and green bond counsel by Thomson Reuters.
• Nixon Peabody has been named a Tier 1 National firm for Environmental Law and Public Finance Law in the 2024 edition of Best Law Firms®.