Regulatory compliance and environmental risk after a wildfire

The 2026 wildfire season is underway, with activity reported in Western Europe, Canada, and the United States, including the Spokane, Washington area.

When a wildfire affects a company’s US facilities, operations, or properties, regulatory obligations could arise before the smoke clears. Companies affected by wildfire in the US often face overlapping obligations under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA); the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA); the Clean Air Act; the Clean Water Act; and standards administered by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) – frequently on compressed timelines and under heightened agency scrutiny. Understanding those obligations early can enhance response and recovery efforts.

Wildfire impacts may also create broader business continuity, operational, governance, and litigation considerations that develop alongside environmental compliance obligations, calling for coordinated response planning across functions.

The most immediate risks tend to cluster around three areas: waste and debris handling, air and water quality, and worker safety. This alert outlines key exposure points for companies operating in the US as they navigate the post-wildfire landscape.

The federal response framework

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) follows a two-phase model for post-wildfire hazardous materials removal. During Phase 1, EPA teams identify and remove immediately dangerous materials, including paints, solvents, propane tanks, lithium-ion batteries, and similar hazards. Once this process is complete, Phase 2 begins, during which the US Army Corps of Engineers manages structural debris removal under the coordination of the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Property owners must sign Right of Entry agreements before any federal work can proceed, and rebuilding cannot begin until Phase 1 is complete.

Wildfire events could also raise issues related to CERCLA. Under CERCLA, EPA may respond to releases of hazardous substances and later seek cost recovery from responsible parties. Liability under CERCLA is strict, joint and several, and retroactive, meaning it can attach even if a company’s operations did not directly cause the release. Facilities that stored or handled hazardous materials and that are located within a burn area may be subject to regulatory review or enforcement activity under applicable environmental statutes.

Hazardous waste identification and disposal

Disaster debris is regulated under RCRA, and generators must classify waste as hazardous or non-hazardous at the point of generation. A company’s generator category determines its accumulation limits, time limits, and management requirements. Violations can result in enforcement actions by EPA or authorized states, including civil or criminal penalties. Lithium-ion batteries and concentrated heavy metals in ash present particular risks and typically require specialized handling.

Air quality compliance and asbestos management

The National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants asbestos requirements mandate inspection before demolition or renovation of fire-damaged structures and impose related agency notification requirements. Notably, these requirements apply even to emergency demolitions. Because asbestos does not burn, it becomes concentrated in ash and debris after a fire, triggering specific disposal requirements.

Separately, EPA’s Exceptional Events Rule may affect National Ambient Air Quality Standards attainment designations in areas impacted by wildfire smoke, potentially creating additional permitting obligations.

Water quality and stormwater compliance

Post-fire runoff can carry heavy metals, nutrients, and volatile organic compounds into surface waters. Fire damage may also create new discharge pathways from company facilities. Permittees have ongoing obligations to mitigate impacts and maintain proper operations, and existing permits may need to be updated to reflect post-fire conditions.

Beyond surface water concerns, wildfire can also compromise drinking water systems. EPA has documented elevated benzene and other contaminant levels in distribution infrastructure following pressure-loss events, with impacts that may extend beyond the immediate burn footprint.

Worker safety obligations

OSHA’s Hazardous Waste Operations and Emergency Response standard applies to cleanup operations involving hazardous substances. It requires site-specific health and safety plans, medical surveillance, and role-appropriate training for workers.

Where asbestos-containing debris is present, OSHA’s Asbestos Standard imposes additional requirements for respiratory protection and personal protective equipment, including a prohibition on the use of N95 respirators and disposable respirators for asbestos work.

Rebuilding activities may not begin until hazardous materials have been removed and cleanup-related hazards have been addressed.

In practice, wildfire response often requires coordination among environment, health, and safety personnel; emergency response teams; contractors; insurers; operations personnel; and legal counsel to manage recovery activities while maintaining regulatory compliance and protecting workers.

State-level regulatory considerations

In addition to federal requirements, companies may need to navigate state-specific rules that impose additional or more stringent obligations. States such as California and Colorado, for example, maintain their own hazardous waste, asbestos, and water quality requirements alongside federal requirements.

These state regulatory regimes often include separate notification deadlines, permitting requirements, and enforcement mechanisms. Companies with operations in multiple states may wish to conduct a jurisdiction-specific analysis early in the recovery process.

Looking ahead

As companies assess potential exposure and plan for recovery, several themes emerge:

• Premature site activity can create enforcement risk. Companies that begin remediation, demolition, or rebuilding before EPA completes Phase 1 removal may face CERCLA-related enforcement exposure.


• Overlapping regulatory frameworks may require coordinated legal and operational analysis. When CERCLA, RCRA, the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, and OSHA requirements apply simultaneously, a single event can implicate multiple regulatory regimes.


• Wildfire response may involve cross-functional coordination. Environmental compliance, worker safety, operational continuity, contractor management, and public-facing communications issues could arise simultaneously and require coordinated decision-making across multiple business functions.


• Contemporaneous documentation may be important. In later enforcement proceedings, contractual disputes, cost-recovery litigation, or other third-party claims, a company’s ability to demonstrate what it knew, when it knew it, and why particular response decisions were made could significantly affect outcomes.


• Contractor non-compliance may create liability exposure. Companies that engage third-party contractors for cleanup or demolition work may face exposure arising from contractor violations.


• Insurance coverage issues could arise. Standard commercial general liability and property insurance policies do not always cover wildfire-related environmental cleanup costs, regulatory response costs, or third-party contamination claims.

These issues are not limited to heavily regulated industrial facilities. Commercial properties, mixed-use developments, utilities, and companies with distributed real estate footprints may all encounter environmental and safety obligations once the immediate emergency response phase concludes.

How DLA Piper can help

DLA Piper’s Environment, Health, and Safety practice and Environmental and Catastrophic Events team help businesses prepare for, respond to, and recover from post-disaster environmental enforcement, multi-agency cleanup coordination, contractor management, business continuity challenges, and related litigation risks in an evolving regulatory environment.

For more information, please contact the authors.