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Steven L. Hoch

Of Counsel

Steven Hoch assists industrial, commercial, public utilities, and others in the context of litigation, enforcement actions, water supply and wastewater disposal permitting, regulatory proceedings, public policy formation, and advice. He also assists manufacturers, retailers, and property owners relating to claims of toxic exposures. Most notably, he was counsel of PG&E in the case made famous by the movie Erin Brockovich.

Steven’s goal in his practice is to assist all clients to find cost-effective solutions to their issues by using a common-sense approach to explore prompt resolution of concerns and provide economically sensible results. When that is not possible, Steven is well prepared to take the actions necessary to protect his clients’ interests.

He has published many articles on a wide variety of environmental subjects and is a frequent speaker at professional conferences on hazardous waste, environmental regulation, groundwater modeling, products liability, toxic torts, and other environmental matters.

Education

J.D., Boston University School of Law, Boston, Massachusetts, 1973
B.A., State University of New York, Buffalo, New York, 1970

Recognitions

Named among The Best Lawyers in America® for Litigation – Environmental by Best Lawyers (2024)

AV Preeminent Peer Review Rated – Martindale-Hubbell

Memberships

Planning Committee, ABA’s Section of Environment, Energy, and Resources 2018 Environmental Seminar

Planning Committee, 2018 Remediation Summit

Association of California Water Agencies: Water Quality Committee; Water Quality and Groundwater Hydraulic Fracking Workgroup; Hexavalent Chromium Workgroup

American Water Works Association

Groundwater Resources Association

State Bar of California Association Environmental Law Section

American Bar Association: Section of Environment, Energy, and Resources; Section of Litigation; Annual Water Law Conference Organizing Committee: 2008-2014

Century City Bar Association: Secretary (2012-2013), Treasurer (2011-2012)

State Bar Licenses

California

Court Admissions

U.S. Supreme Court
U.S. Court of Appeals, 9th Circuit
U.S. District Ct., C.D. of California
U.S. District Ct., E.D. of California
U.S. District Ct., N.D. of California
U.S. District Ct., S.D. of California
Articles
  • Author, “Recent Rulings Add Dimension To Justices’ Maui Decision” Law360.com, March 4, 2024
  • Author, “What the California Environmental Quality Act Means for Cannabis Operators in the Golden State,” March 22, 2022
  • Author, “RCRA Liability: A Possibility When Drinking Water Is Delivered,” November 5, 2021
  • Author, “The answer to what are ‘Waters of the United States’ in play,” Los Angeles Daily Journal, July 13, 2021
  • Co-Author, “Functional Equivalency? Assessing Groundwater Discharges Under County of Maui,” Environmental Law Reporter, April 1, 2021
  • Author, “California’s New Program To Increase the Recycling of Solar Panels,” January 4, 2021
  • Author, “Application of the Clean Water Act to Groundwater Is Anathema to the Water Industry: An Unfolding Tale,” JournalAWWA, American Water Works Association, October 4, 2019
  • Author, “Does the CWA cover groundwater?” Los Angeles Daily Journal, October 4, 2019
  • “Contractors and Engineers Face Environmental Vulnerability Under CERCLA,” Construction Executive CE This Week, September 28, 2018
  • “Practitioner Insights: Tenants Now Can Qualify for Brownfield Protections,” Bloomberg Environment, June 19, 2018
  • Author, “Practitioner Insights: Tenants Now Can Qualify for Brownfield Protections,” Bloomberg Environment, June 19, 2018
  • Author, “CERCLA Trumps As-Is Sales”, HazMat eNewsletter, October 5, 2017
  • Court Vacates Final Rule Regarding CERCLA and EPCR
  • Editor, Morris Polich & Purdy LLP’s Environmental Law Newsletter, June 2017
  • Editor, Morris Polich & Purdy LLP’s Environmental Law Newsletter, April 2017 – “A (Very) Short History of Fluoride”
  • Author, “Do You Pump Water? You May be a Polluter”, Business and Legal Resources, March 28, 2017
  • Editor, Morris Polich & Purdy LLP’s Environmental Law Newsletter, February 2017 – “Airplane Water Regulations”
  • Editor, Morris Polich & Purdy LLP’s Environmental Law Newsletter, January 2017 “O TCE, TCE! Wherefore art thou TCE?” “EPA Changes Its Methodology of Dealing with Vapor Intrusion” “Court Restores EPA’s Water Transfer Rule”
  • Editor, Morris Polich & Purdy LLP’s Environmental Law Newsletter, December 2016 “The Poem” “EPA Says ‘No’ to Fracking”
  • Editor, Morris Polich & Purdy LLP’s Environmental Law Newsletter, September 2016 “15 of the World’s Key Environmental Issues and a Walk on the Wild Side” “No Liability for Past Deeds”
  • Editor, Morris Polich & Purdy LLP’s Environmental Law Newsletter, July 2016 “If You Pump Water, You May be a Polluter—Ain’t That Swell!” “Disposal by Wind is not a Disposal” “CA Proposes Adopting New Permit Program for Wetlands and Waters of the State”
  • Editor, Morris Polich & Purdy LLP’s Environmental Law Newsletter, June 2016 “Earth Day #1 + 46 years—We are better, but what about the rest of the world?”
  • Editor, Morris Polich & Purdy LLP’s Environmental Law Newsletter, March 2016 “Our Love Affair with Nitrogen-Based Fertilizers: Are We Breaking Up?”
  • Editor, Morris Polich & Purdy LLP’s Environmental Law Newsletter, February 2016 “Like a Lead Balloon”
  • Editor, Morris Polich & Purdy LLP’s Environmental Law Newsletter, December 2015 “The Many Faces of the Environment”
  • Editor, Morris Polich & Purdy LLP’s Environmental Law Newsletter, October 2015 “Solving the Issue of Pharmaceuticals in Water is Physiologically Impossible”
  • Editor, Morris Polich & Purdy LLP’s Environmental Law Newsletter, August 2015 “Underground Storage Tanks – Who Ever Thought of That?”
  • Editor, Morris Polich & Purdy LLP’s Environmental Law Newsletter, July 2015 “You got the Vapors!”
  • Editor, Morris Polich & Purdy LLP’s Environmental Law Newsletter, June 2015 “EPA Releases Hundreds of Pages to Explain What ‘Waters of the United States’ Means”
  • Editor, Morris Polich & Purdy LLP’s Environmental Law Newsletter, April 2015
  • Editor, Morris Polich & Purdy LLP’s Environmental Law Newsletter, March 2015 “Safer Choice Label” “State Supreme Court Weighs In on Clean Air Act Preemption”
  • Editor, Morris Polich & Purdy LLP’s Environmental Law Newsletter, February 2015 “Happy Anniversary to the Safe Drinking Water Act” “Deadlining Litigation Doesn’t Seem to Make Much of an Impact”
  • Editor, Morris Polich & Purdy LLP’s Environmental Law Newsletter, January 2015 “Environmental Resolutions for 2015”
  • Editor, Morris Polich & Purdy LLP’s Environmental Law Newsletter, November 2014 “California’s Good Intentions Gone Haywire”
  • Editor, Morris Polich & Purdy LLP’s Environmental Law Newsletter, October 2014 “EPA’s Data Dilemma”
  • “Gross Negligence’ at Deepwater Horizon,” Los Angeles Daily Journal, September 15, 2014
  • Editor, Morris Polich & Purdy LLP’s Environmental Law Newsletter, September 2014 Author, “As Water Flows, So Does the Reach of the Government: The Clean Water Act”
  • Editor, Morris Polich & Purdy LLP’s Environmental Law Newsletter, July 2014 Author, “Climate Change Makes Strange Bedfellows”
  • Editor, Morris Polich & Purdy LLP’s Environmental Law Newsletter, April 2014 Author, “New Hurdles for California Business with Proposed Prop 65 Changes”
  • Editor, Morris Polich & Purdy LLP’s Environmental Law Newsletter, March 2014 Author, “The Oozing Environmental Problem No One Likes to Talk About”
  • Editor, Morris Polich & Purdy LLP’s Environmental Law Newsletter, January 2014 Author, “Look Before You Leap: the EPA and Fire Hydrant Requirements”
  • Editor, Morris Polich & Purdy LLP’s Environmental Law Newsletter, December 2013 Author, “Setting Drinking Water Quality Levels Is Like Making Sausages – It’s an Ugly Process but Somehow Works”
  • “Joint and Several Liability is the Future of the Clean Water Act,” American Bar Association, Section on Environment, Energy, and Resources, Water Quality and Wetlands Committee Newsletter, December 2013
  • Editor, Morris Polich & Purdy LLP’s Environmental Law Newsletter, November 2013 Author, “Our Water Is Going to Pot”
  • Editor, Morris Polich & Purdy LLP’s Environmental Law Newsletter, October 2013 Author, “Climate Change”
  • “Proposed Updates to EPA’s Multi-Sector General Permit for Stormwater,” Email Alert, October 2, 2013
  • “Circuits Say CERCLA Contribution Available for State Law Liability,” Los Angeles Daily Journal, August 23, 2013
  • Editor, Morris Polich & Purdy LLP’s Environmental Law Newsletter, August 2013 Author, “Farming and the Environment”
  • “New Clean Water Act Decision Raises Defense Concerns,” Los Angeles Daily Journal, July 25, 2013
  • Editor, Morris Polich & Purdy LLP’s Environmental Law Newsletter, July 2013 Author, “Looking at the Environment”
  • “Court Says Clean Water Act Permit Reviews Cannot Be Compelled,” Los Angeles Daily Journal, May 22, 2013
  • “CERCLA Apportionment Unworkable,” Los Angeles Daily Journal, April 19, 2013
  • “EPA ‘Legislation by Memo’ Comes Under Fire,” Los Angeles Daily Journal, March 29, 2013
  • “Beware CERCLA Statutory Pitfalls,” Los Angeles Daily Journal, March 21, 2013
  • “Seventh Circuit Says CERCLA Cost Recovery and Contribution Claims Are Mutually Exclusive,” Email Alert, January 30, 2013
  • “Supreme Court Signals Importance of Causation in Clean Water Act Violations,” Email Alert, January 16, 2013
  • “Court Closes Door on Dual CERCLA Claim Actions,” Los Angeles Daily Journal, January 9, 2013
  • Co-author, “Point-of-Use Devices Raise Specter of Liability of Water Providers,” American Water Works Association California-Nevada Section, SOURCE Magazine, Vol.26 Number 4, Fall 2012
  • Interviewed by Law360.com regarding joining Morris Polich & Purdy LPP, article published May 23, 2012
  • “Agriculture: the New Environmental Demon – A Historical Change in Perspective and Challenge for the Future,” Coalition of Labor, Agriculture and Business (COLAB) Newsletter, Vol.21 Issue 4, April 2012
  • “The EPA Takes It on the Chin,” Email Alert, March 26, 2012
  • “Trichloroethylene Now Considered a Possible Human Carcinogen by EPA,” Brownstein Client Update, October 7, 2011
  • “Nevada: Leading the LEED Revolution,” Communiqué, Vol. 32, No. 4, April 2011
  • “Client Alert: EPA Stays Numeric Turbidity Effluent Limitation,” Brownstein Client Alert, November 9, 2010
  • “A Tale of Environmental Inclusion,” The Daily Journal, July 26, 2010
  • “Client Alert: SEC Clarifies Public Companies’ Obligation to Disclose Impact of Climate Change, Including Pending Green House Gas Emission Reduction Legislation and Regulation,” Brownstein Client Alert, February 2, 2010
  • “Client Update: Requiring Reports of Water Quality Also Requires Action to be Taken,” Brownstein Client Alert, November 11, 2009
  • “Client Alert: Appellate Court Holds Utilities Liable on a Nuisance Theory For Greenhouse Gas Emissions is Likely to Lead to a Proliferation of Suits,” Brownstein Client Alert, September 29, 2009
  • “Case Alert: U.S. Supreme Court’s Failure to Review Ninth Circuit Superfund Ruling May Result in Increased Filing of Claims by Plaintiffs for Toxic Torts,” Brownstein Case Alert, July 17, 2009
  • “Case Alert: Guzman v. County of Monterey, More Protection for Municipal Water Suppliers,” Brownstein Case Alert, June 24, 2009
  • “The Brewing Climate Change Storm and TRUs,” Western Grower & Shipper, June 2009
  • “U.S. Supreme Court Eliminates Joint and Several Liability Under CERCLA,” Brownstein Case Alert, May 7, 2009
  • “Case Alert: Supreme Court Issues Important Ruling on CERCLA Liability,” Brownstein Case Alert, May 7, 2009
  • “Will CERCLA Allow Water Entities to Recover Response Costs From Pharmaceutical Companies?” Law & Water Column, American Water Works Association Journal, May 2009
  • “Client Update: California Office of Planning & Research Releases Updated CEQA Guidelines For GHG Reviews,” Brownstein Client Update, April 23, 2009
  • “Client Alert: State Water Resources Control Board Adopts Water Recycling Policy,” Brownstein Client Alert, February 6, 2009
  • “The Recorder: Rise of the Climate Law Practice Group,” The Recorder, February 2009
  • “Client Alert: Implications of California’s Construction Storm Water Program,” Brownstein Client Alert, January 23, 2009
  • “Client Alert: California Issues Draft Guideline Amendments For Green House Gases Under CEQA,” Brownstein Client Alert, January 14, 2009
  • “Could Climate Change Alter Golf Course Operations?” Golf Course Industry, November 2008
  • “Client Alert: California’s Toxic Substance Control Act Breaks New Barriers But For Better Or For Worse?” Brownstein Client Alert, October 7, 2008
  • “Client Alert: California’s SB 375, Land Use Measure to Reduce Green House Gases Signed Into Law,” Brownstein Client Alert, October 2, 2008
  • “Client Alert: The Internal Revenue Service Speaks Out on Supplemental Environmental Programs,” Brownstein Client Alert, September 17, 2008
  • “Client Alert: California’s AB 32 Scoping Plan Appendices Issued,” Brownstein Client Alert, August 14, 2008
  • “Summary of Key Features Contained in the Appendices to CARB’s Draft Scoping Plan Prepared Pursuant to AB 32,” Brownstein Client Alert, August 14, 2008
  • “Summary of Climate Change Draft Scoping Plan Prepared by The California Air Resources Board Pursuant to AB 32,” Brownstein Client Alert, July 10, 2008
  • “California’s Sweeping Greenhouse Gas Reduction Plan Leaves Some Issues Unanswered,” Brownstein Client Alert, July 10, 2008
  • “Colorado Climate Change Alert,” Brownstein Client Alert, April 30, 2008
  • “In Depth Analysis of the ASTM Voluntary Standard Practice,” In Depth Analysis of the ASTM Voluntary Standard Practice for Assessment of Vapor Intrusion into Structures on Property Involved in Real Estate Transactions (Designation: E 2600 – 08), March 26
  • “New Vapor Intrusion Standards Alert,” Brownstein Client Alert, Vol 1:1, March 26, 2008
  • “AB 32 California Climate Change Initiative,” Issue No. 1, January 24, 2008
  • ​ “Case Alert: Urban Water Management Plans And Groundwater Contamination Issues,” October 4, 2004
  • “Case Alert: New Statute Alert A.B. 2528: “Action Level” Is Replaced By Two New Regulatory Concepts,” September 30, 2004
  • “Case Alert: Court Dismisses All Drinking Water Providers from Mass Toxic Tort Suit,” August 4, 2004
  • “Case Alert: Cost Recovery for Contamination to Groundwater,” June 16, 2004
  • “Case Alert: Water Rechargers and Providers May Qualify as PRPs Under CERCLA,” April 27, 2004
Presentations
  • Speaker, “What Every Fiduciary Should Know About Environmental Problems,” 26th Annual Professional Fiduciary Association of California Educational Conference, August 27, 2021
  • Speaker, “Groundwater and the Clean Water Act,” American Ground Water Association | American Ground Water Trust Conference, February 20, 2020
  • Presenter, “POU/POE SWRCB’s Policy — Why, How and Headaches,” Metropolitan Water District, January 11, 2018
  • Presenter, “The Pitfalls of Water Quality as it Effects Sustainability”, California Groundwater Law Conference, May 18, 2017
  • Guest Speaker, “What’s the Future of the EPA and Its Regulations?, EHS on Tap: The Podcast for EHS Professionals, March 3, 2017
  • Presenter, AGWA-AGWT Annual California Groundwater Conference, “The Impact of Contamination on Groundwater Sustainability,” February 16, 2017
  • “Energy Disclosures: California Law and the Pending ASTM Standard,” speaker, California Building Industry Association’s SCIL Conference, Ojai, CA, November 20, 2010
  • Presenter, The Science and Law of Water in California, “Groundwater Quality: Complying with Federal and State Regulations and Technical Requirements,” September 17, 2015
  • “Trustee Liability for Contaminated Property,” co-presenter, Professional Fiduciary Association of California (PFAC) 20th Annual Educational Conference, San Francisco, CA, April 23, 2015
  • “The Regulatory History of Hexavalent Chromium,” panelist/moderator, Association of California Water Agencies Fall Conference & Exhibition, Los Angeles, CA, December 4, 2013
  • “Superfund or Supermess: How CERCLA May Be Failing Water Providers,” co-presented to Association of California Water Agencies Regulatory Summit, Oxnard, CA, August 14, 2013
  • “Solving the Stormwater Compliance Puzzle and Understanding What it All Means,” presented to American Council of Engineering Companies (ACEC), March 26, 2013
  • “Strategies for Solving CEC Problems Upstream,” speaker, American Water Resources Association (AWRA) Summer Conference on Contaminants of Emerging Concern in Water Resources II: Research, Engineering and Community Action, Denver, CO, June 26, 2012
  • “Whose Contaminant Is It Anyway?” presenter, California Nevada Section American Water Works Association, Reno, NV, October 18, 2011
  • “The Water/Energy Nexus in California,” Law Seminars International, June 20, 2011
  • “The 6th Symposium in the Series on Tools and Technologies: Environmental Forensics in an Era of Emerging Diagnostic Methods,” Groundwater Resources Association of California, Irvine, CA, April 12, 2011
  • “Climate Change, Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Their Impact on Real Estate Law and Practice,” speaker, Law Education Institute’s National CLE Conference, Vail, CO, January 7, 2011
  • “Legal Implications and the Use of Nanotechnology in the Water Industry,” speaker, ACWA Conference, Indian Wells, CA, December 1, 2010
  • “Groundwater and Water Rights,” speaker, Paso Robles Wine Country Alliance, Paso Robles, CA, October 21, 2010
  • “Little Stuff, Legal Consequences?” speaker, American Water Works Association Annual Conference, Chicago, IL, June 21, 2010
  • “Impacts of New SEC Climate Change Disclosure Policy on Your Company,” presenter, live webinar, May 25, 2010
  • “Impact of Climate Change on Golf Industry,” speaker, Club Managers Association of America, San Diego, CA, February 8-13, 2010
  • “Climate Change and Its Impact on the Practice of Real Estate Law,” speaker, Colorado CLE Conference, Vail, CO January 5, 2009
  • “The Impact of Global Warming on Land Use Planning: the California and Colorado Experiences,” Presentation to the American Planning Association, Colorado Chapter, Annual Conference, Breckenridge, CO, September 12, 2008

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