Title: CERCLA Liability: Response Costs, NRDs, and State Law
1CERCLA LiabilityResponse Costs, NRDs, and State
Law
2REVIEW CERCLA Damages Under 107
- All response costs incurred by a government not
inconsistent with the National Contingency Plan
(NCP) - All other response costs that are consistent with
the NCP - Natural resource damages
- Health assessment and monitoring costs
3California v. Neville Chemical Co.
Groundwater (and Soil) Contamination at CERCLA
Sites EPA diagram.
4Natural Resources
- Land, fish, wildlife, biota, water, ground water,
drinking water supplies, and other such resources
5Natural Resources Damages (NRDs)
- AVAILABLE ONLY IF injured natural resources
belong to, are managed by, are held in trust by,
appertain to, or otherwise are controlled by - the United States
- a State government
- a local government
- a foreign government
- a Tribe
6An NRD Example The Exxon Valdez Oil Spill
- Captive Sea Otter 50,000
- Sea Otter rehabilitation 40,000-90,000
- Sea Otter transportation 1500-20,000
- Killer Whale 50,000-100,000
- Humpback Whale 100,000
- White-Tailed Deer 125-500
- Brown Bear 300-500
- Eagle 22,000
- Seagull 167
- Information care of Exxon Valdez Trustee Council,
http//www.oilspill.state.ak.us
7Contingent Valuation
- How much would you pay to purify a gallon of
river water if - -- the water will be returned to the river and
everything that lives in the river is already
dead? - -- with just a little bit of purification, the
river would support healthy populations of
commercially valuable fish? - -- you have to drink that gallon of water when
the cleanup is complete?
8Contingent Valuation for the Exxon Valdez Spill
Contingent Valuation of Lost Passive Use Value
2.8 BILLION
9Health Effects
from EPA, Draft Report on the Environment Fig
3-11 (2003)
10Freier v. Westinghouse Electric Corp.
PRP LIABILITY
CERCLA 107 COSTS DAMAGES
STATE LAW LIABILITY
ALLOWED THROUGH CERCLAS SAVINGS CLAUSE
BUT Statute of limitations for state-law
actions begins on FRCD