About Doug
Doug Steding
Founder and Principal
Doug lives in Mount Baker with his wife, son and daughter. When not practicing law, he enjoys spending time with his family, flyfishing, surfing, scuba diving and exploring. He also has a small hobby oyster farm, producing Kumamoto and Pacific Oysters at Camano Island north of Seattle for consumption by his friends and family.
Legal Practice
Doug conducts an environmental law and litigation practice. He represents landowners, real estate developers, construction companies, industrial facilities and other businesses on issues related to hazardous waste, contaminated land and regulatory compliance. Doug leverages his scientific background in his legal practice and in the representation of his clients, bringing his knowledge to bear on remediation of contaminated lands and sediments. His land use practice also benefits from his technical background, enabling him to help businesses navigate the complex land use permitting process associated with permitting projects in or near sensitive aquatic environments.
Background
Before forming Steelhead Law, Doug practiced with the law firm Stoel Rives LLP. He also served as an intern in the Environmental Protection Agency’s Region 10 Office of Regional Counsel and as a legal extern to the Washington Environmental Council.
Prior to attending law school, Doug earned his Ph.D. in Earth Sciences/Geochemistry, studying the fate and transport of metals in the atmosphere and in estuaries. His research resulted in a cover article in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, and his work included some of the first studies of the impact of industrial emissions from China on mercury deposition on the west coast of North America.
Education
University of Washington School of Law, J.D., 2005
- Associate Editor in Chief, Pacific Rim Law and Policy Journal
- First place, Moot Court Appellate Advocacy Competition
University of California, Santa Cruz, Ph.D., 2001
University of California, Los Angeles, B.S., 1997
Admitted:
Washington (2005)
Eastern District of Washington
Legal Writings
Jennie L. Bricker, John A. McKinsey and Douglas J. Steding, The Law of Ocean Energy, Chapter 4, Ocean and Tidal Energy Lease Agreements, Stoel Rives “Law of Energy” Series (2008).
Steven J. Thiele, Douglas J. Steding and Christopher R. Hermann, Wood Waste & Water: Washington State's New Wood Waste Cleanup Push, The Water Report, Issue 39 (May 15, 2007).
Douglas J. Steding, Russian Floating Nuclear Reactors: Lacunae in Current International Environmental and Maritime Law and the Need for Proactive International Cooperation in the Development of Sustainable Energy Sources, 13 Pac. Rim L. & Pol’y J. 711 (2004).
Legal Presentations
Douglas J. Steding, OTEC Facility Development: Domestic and International Law Considerations, Energy Ocean, Turtle Bay, Hawaii (2007.)
Scientific Writings
Steding, D.J. and A.R. Flegal, Mercury Concentrations in Individual Rain Events on the West Coast of North America: A Study of Local and Long Range Inputs of Mercury to Rain, 107 J. Geophysical Res., Atmospheres, No. D24, 4764 (Dec. 19, 2002).
Steding, D.J., Dunlap, C.E., and A.R. Flegal, Cover Article: New Isotopic Evidence for Chronic Lead Contamination in San Francisco Bay: Implications for the Persistence of Past Industrial Lead Emissions in the Biosphere, 97 Proceedings of the Nat‘l Acad. of Sci. 11181 (Oct. 10, 2000).
Kuwabara, J.S., Berelson, W.M., Balistrieri, L.S., Woods, P.F., Topping, B.R., Steding, D.J., and D.P. Krabbenhoft, Benthic Flux of Metals and Nutrients into the Water Column of Lake Coeur d'Alene, Idaho: Report of an August, 1999 Pilot Study, U.S. Geological Survey Water Resources Investigations Rep. 00-4132, (2000).
Scientific Presentations
Steding, D.J., Conaway, C.H., Mason, R.P., Kelly, R.W., Long, S.E., and A.R. Flegal, Estimate of Potential Mercury Emissions to the Atmosphere from Crude Oil Processing, 6th Int‘l Conf. on Mercury as a Global Pollutant, Minamata, Japan (2001).
Steding, D.J., Dunlap, C.E., and A.R. Flegal, New Isotopic Evidence for Chronic Lead Contamination in the San Francisco Bay and Implications for the Persistence of Past Industrial Lead Emissions in the Biosphere, Int‘l Conf. on Heavy Metals in the Env’t., Ann Arbor, MI. (2000).
Flegal, A.R., Dunlap, C.E., and D.J Steding (invited speaker), Two Centuries of Lead Contamination in San Francisco Bay: Isotopic Tracers of Historic Inputs of Industrial Lead Indicate Future Inputs into the Next Millennium, Society of Envtl. Toxicology and Chemistry 20th Annual Meeting, Philadelphia (1999).