Christopher Jones

Chris has more than 30 years of experience in the environmental field, including six years as Director of the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency and four years as Chief of the Ohio Attorney General’s Environmental Enforcement Section.

While Director of Ohio EPA, Chris was a two-term elected president of the Environmental Council of the States (ECOS), a national organization of all of the directors of state environmental agencies. In this role, he served as the primary liaison between states and the U.S. EPA.

This experience gives Chris a unique understanding of both state and federal environmental regulatory agencies and allows him to provide firm clients with a seasoned perspective on environmental and regulatory matters as well as government relations issues.

Chris has represented businesses and individuals in enforcement proceedings by both U.S. EPA and Ohio EPA. He has counseled clients on regulatory compliance issues related to the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, and both hazardous and solid waste issues under RCRA, and he has counseled clients on brownfield redevelopment projects. He has served as an expert witness in a number of cases, including for a brownfield developer in a dispute over a multi-million-dollar redevelopment. Chris also serves as a volunteer mediator for the United States District Court for the Southern District of Ohio.

Since 2006, Chris has been recognized by Chambers USA, most recently ranked in 2024, Band 2 in Environment in Ohio. Chambers USA researchers noted, "Chris benefits from prior experience serving as the director of the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency. He provides market-leading expertise in various permitting, compliance, and remediation matters." Clients interviewed by Chambers USA said, “Chris has extensive knowledge of environmental law, is very pragmatic, and has deep connections within the regulatory environment in Ohio. He is great, very smart, and knows the laws. Chris not only provides a wealth of knowledge and a strong technical background but is also an incredibly strong negotiator.”

Chris also has been selected for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America^® in the area of Environmental Law (2012-2025).

He has an AV Preeminent Rating from Martindale-Hubbell and is listed in Corporate Counsel’s 2012 Top Rated Lawyers Guide to Energy, Environmental & Natural Resources Law.

Chris is former board chair and member of the Greater Ohio Policy Center and is the former chair of the board of trustees of the Nature Conservancy, Ohio Chapter. 

In the past Chris has served as chairman of the Lake Erie Commission, as a governor-appointed member of the Great Lakes Commission, as a member of the Ohio Air Quality Development Authority, the Ohio Water Development Authority and the State Power Siting Board. Chris was an original member of the Clean Ohio Council.

Chris is also a member of the Ohio and Columbus Bar Associations.

Honors & Recognitions

• Chambers USA, Environment, Band 2, Ohio (2006-2024)
• The Best Lawyers in America^®, Environmental Law (2012-2025)
• Martindale-Hubbell, AV Preeminent Rating

Education

J.D., Georgetown University Law Center, 1990

B.A., Ohio Wesleyan University, 1979

Experience

• Advised our client, a Midwestern city government, on a dam removal project, which involved multi-jurisdictional grant agreements involving the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and state, county and local governments on a $180 million project for the removal of a dam and the restoration a major river in the county in which the city client is located. Calfee is now advising the client on Combined Sewer Overflow (CSO) litigation with the United States Environmental Protection Agency. (2024)

• Advising the client, a nonprofit limited liability company in Ohio formed to reclaim a former quarry site to create a natural area for inclusion in the National Park, on the revision of reclamation plans for the former aggregate mining operation, including obtaining an exemption from the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency to allow waste materials to be handled onsite. Calfee is assisting in obtaining an exemption from certain Solid Waste laws and regulations from the Ohio EPA and obtaining approval of a revised reclamation plan from the Ohio Department of Natural Resources in order to create a natural area for inclusion in the National Park. (2024)
• Calfee serves as the lead environmental counsel for the client, an industry leader in challenging site development and construction, advising the client and its joint venture partners on the purchase and redevelopment of two major automobile plants in the Midwest. Environmental remediation will be the key to the redevelopment of the two properties. (2024)
• Serve as environmental transactional and compliance counsel for the client, a leading provider of mineral-based and material solutions for the industrial and energy markets, in a complex acquisition of a silica and mining operation. Calfee was specifically involved at all levels in representing the client in the purchase through diligence and compliance counselling. The transaction involved complex environmental and regulatory issues, including wetlands investigation, stormwater, wastewater and air emission compliance issues, environmental risk and liability analysis, and complex land splits and permit transfer and cooperation strategies. Calfee helped guide the client’s legal and executive teams through the complex issues to arrive at liability protection and compliance assurance. (2024)
• Advise the client, a European multinational manufacturing company, related to a construction recovery facility in the Midwest, on compliance issues at its facility. The most recent matter has involved the negotiations of Administrative Orders with the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency to resolve multiple complaints filed by a disgruntled former employee. Specifically, Calfee is assisting with the negotiation of Administrative Orders, including an Operational Plan for the facility. The Orders are essential to its continuing operations. (2024)
• Serve as the advising environmental counsel for a group of remediating companies, including a subsidiary of a publicly traded, Fortune 500 coatings client company in the CERCLA Superfund matter wherein the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency changed the remedy for the site after years of remediation and millions of funds spent in cleanup. CERCLA's Superfund achieved an estimated value of $50 billion in PRP commitments for site cleanup and to reimburse the EPA's costs spent cleaning up sites. (2024)
• Serve as environmental diligence counsel on a real estate purchase for the client, a large nonprofit performing arts center. The client is under contract to buy a local bus terminal that has complex environmental and regulatory issues arising from the historical presence of underground petroleum storage tanks, with associated releases and remediation. Calfee’s expertise was necessary to negotiate liability protection from the historical USTs in the transaction documents and arrange, review and analyze environmental assessment reports used to investigate the property and gain legal defenses related to federal and state statutes allocated contamination liability. (2024)
• Negotiating individual orders for the client, a Fortune 500 chemical corporation, involving the remediation of the former disposal at several sites related to the client’s former facility. The sites include private residential property and industrial quarry properties. These are legacy sites, which remain on the client’s books until resolved. Two sites have been resolved thus far. Specifically, Calfee is handling the negotiation of Orders addressing the legacy sites in the area. (2024)
• Advised the client, a domestic company with dozens of manufactured home communities across multiple states, in relation to three manufactured home communities in the Midwest, on compliance issues at these facilities. The current matter has involved the negotiation of Administrative Orders from the state Environmental Protection Agency to resolve multiple violations of pollution discharge permits. Specifically, Calfee is involved in the negotiation of Administrative Orders, counseling on return to compliance, and negotiation of a potential civil penalty for the violations. (2024)
• Assist the client, a midstream assets operator and provider of natural gas and oil, with the responses to the United States Environmental Protection Agency Requests for Information Pursuant to Section 114 of the Clean Air Act. Specifically, Calfee advises the client’s in-house counsel and technical staff as it prepares responses to the Requests for Information. Requests for Information are frequently followed by enforcement actions on the part of USEPA. The preparation of the responses must take this possibility into consideration. (2024)
• Serve as lead environmental litigation counsel to one of the nation’s largest privately owned residential and commercial waste and recycling companies in environmental administrative proceedings in challenge to continued operations of the landfill through the verified complaint process. The remedy sought in the administrative appeal was a shutdown of the client’s landfill, so defense against appeal is critical to the client’s ongoing operations. (2024)
• Serve as the lead environmental defense counsel for the subsidiary of a publicly traded, Fortune 500 coatings client company in a matter involving a demand by an East Coast regulatory authority and potentially responsible parties in a CERCLA matter for alleged PFAS contamination of soil at a composting site where the client delivered waste. (2024)
• Serve as the lead environmental litigation counsel for a globally recognized designer and manufacturer. This client was sued in federal court over an alleged discharge of per- and polyfluoroalkyl (PFAS) substances from its facility. This is a federal class action suit against multiple entities in the carpet industry for alleged PFAS contamination of drinking water, with remedy sought being a proportionate share of replacing a local land application system from process water discharge. (2024)
• Serve as lead environmental litigation counsel to one of the nation’s largest privately owned residential and commercial waste and recycling companies in a challenge to a permit issued to the client for an increase to the daily waste allowance to receive at the client’s landfill. (2024)

Professional & Community

• Greater Ohio Policy Center, Former Board Chair and Member
• U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio, Volunteer Mediator
• Ohio State Bar Association, Member
• Columbus Bar Association, Member
• Nature Conservancy, Ohio Chapter, Former Chair of the Board of Trustees
• Lake Erie Commission, Past Chairman
• Great Lakes Commission, Former Governor-Appointed Member
• Ohio Air Quality Development Authority, Former Member
• Ohio Water Development Authority, Former Member
• State Power Siting Board, Former Member
• Clean Ohio Council, Former Original Member

Client Feedback

• "Chris not only provides a wealth of knowledge and a strong technical background but he is also an incredibly strong negotiator." – Calfee client, as reported in the Chambers USA 2023 Guide
• "I work as national counsel for a large firm. Calfee assisted us as local counsel. The lawyer we worked with, Christopher Jones, had prior experience as a high-level agency employee and had great insights into the views of the agency, the state government, the attorney general, and other significant parties and stakeholders in a variety of areas. He was able to assist us in meeting with the right individuals and negotiating an end to a consent decree, general advice on air permitting and compliance, and guidance on local law issues. Everything one would want in local counsel." – Calfee client, as reported by U.S. News – Best Lawyers^® in the 2021“Best Law Firms” rankings report
• "Christopher Jones's strength includes 'his great knowledge of the local regulatory environment and procedures,' where he benefits from prior experience serving as the Director of the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency. He provides market-leading expertise in various permitting, compliance, and remediation matters." – Calfee client, as reported in the Chambers USA 2020 Guide

Presentations

• Leadership Honors Roundtable Series, Panelist, University of Dayton (February 9, 2024)