587 Showers Street Harrisburg PA 17104 717-238-3027 fax 717-238-8033 billcluck@billcluck.com
William J. Cluck is an environmental, energy and land use attorney based in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Bill has an interesting and diverse law practice, concentrating on environmental, energy and land use law. During his over 36 year career, he has represented members of the regulated community in all aspects of environmental law, including permitting, defense of administrative, civil and criminal enforcement actions, transactional matters and regulatory counseling. He has negotiated environmental permits for graphic arts companies, chemical manufacturing companies, an electric utility, landfills, a pollution control device manufacturer, steel tube manufacturer, and a waste tire processor. Bill has defended a construction company from criminal charges for lead paint violations under the Toxic Substances Control Act. He has also defended companies charged with criminal offenses related to spills of fracking fluids into the environment. He has represented landowners analyzing mineral rights and negotiating oil and gas leases in the Marcellus Shale. His litigation experience includes serving as one of the court-appointed liaison counsel for a large number of small businesses in the Keystone Sanitation Superfund Litigation. Bill's efforts were instrumental in securing both a de micromis and de minimis settlement for his clients and members of the group. He represents clients before the Pennsylvania Environmental Hearing Board, Pennsylvania State courts and he is admitted in the Eastern, Middle and Western District Federal Courts of Pennsylvania. Bill also represents citizen groups in zoning and land development matters and has successfully opposed large solar projects proposed on prime farmland and massive warehouses.
Bill began his legal career as a summer associate in 1987 in the Philadelphia office of Saul Ewing. In 1991, he relocated to Harrisburg and was the first associate in Saul Ewing's Harrisburg office. He was named Special Counsel in 1999 and started his solo practice in July 2000.
He is a past chair of the Environmental and Energy Law Section of the Pennsylvania Bar Association. He chairs the Section's Membership and Diversity Committee. He also serves on the Association's DEI Committee. He is a member of the PBA Appellate Advocacy Committee, Minority Bar Committee, Agriculture Law Committee and Medical Marijuana and Hemp Committee. Bill served eight years on the Board of Directors of Capital Region Water. In 2013, he was chairperson of the Board and oversaw the sale of the Resource Recovery Facility and the transition of Harrisburg water and sewer systems to the Harrisburg Authority, now known as Capital Region Water. Mr. Cluck is a founding member and former Chairperson of the City of Harrisburg's Environmental Advisory Council. He co-chaired the Advocacy and Resource Development Board of the Pennsylvania Small Business Development Centers from 2000 until 2013 and was instrumental in obtaining initial state funding for the SBDC's award-winning Environmental Management Assistance Program . Bill is a member of the Government Relations Committee and previously chaired the Harrisburg Regional Chamber's Environmental and Energy Sub-Committee.
In December 2003, Mr. Cluck served as program co-chair for the ABA Key Environmental Issues in EPA Region 3. In February and April 2004, he served as a panelist on contract issues arising under PaDEP's Clean Fill Policy for PAPA. Bill has lectured frequently for many organizations, including the Pennsylvania Bar Institute on such topics as ethics for public interest lawyers, what engineers need to know about environmental law, brownfields redevelopment, basic air law, Title V permits, DEP's new enforcement authority, what real estate and business lawyers should know about environmental law, environmental audits, waste regulations, evidentiary issues associated with electronic reporting of environmental data and how to respond to an environmental emergency. Bill revised the chapter on storage tanks in the 9th edition and authored the revised chapter on A Practical Guide to the Internet for the Fifth, Sixth, Seventh and Eighth Editions of PBI's Pennsylvania Environmental Law and Practice.
Bill received his B.A. degree from Penn State in 1982. While at Penn State, Bill was president of the Undergraduate Student Government. He is a past member of the Board of Directors of the Penn State Skull and Bones Alumni Interest Group, has served on the Board of Directors of the Mount Nittany Conservancy and is a past president of the Lions Paw Alumni Association and is a past member of its Board of Directors. Mr. Cluck earned his J.D., cum laude, in 1988 from Temple Law School. While in law school, Bill was executive editor of Temple Environmental Law and Technology Journal. He is admitted to practice in Pennsylvania.
