ELR Citation: 41 ELR 20111
No(s). 08-C-16 (E.D. Wis. Feb 28, 2011)

A district court held that a paper company is entitled to contribution from a downstream company for costs it incurred cleaning up PCB contamination at four of five operable units along a river. The court previously ruled that the downstream company was not entitled to contribution from the paper company because it knowingly took the risk that the product it mobilized would have long-lasting environmental consequences. The paper company argued that the same equitable factors that barred the downstream company from receiving contribution would support the awarding of full contribution to the paper company. But under the totality of the circumstances of this case, basing contribution on fault is a sound approach to resolving the liability for the river cleanup. As such, the court ruled that the paper company is entitled to full contribution for all of the appropriate costs incurred in cleaning up operable units two through five, as well as any future costs it may be deemed liable for in those sections of the river. As for operable unit one, the paper company conceded that the downstream company's discharges did not pollute operable unit one since it is located upstream from the company's facility. Nevertheless, the paper company argued that the downstream company is liable as a successor to arrangers of the disposal of those pollutants. Whether the downstream company can be held liable as an arranger cannot be answered at this stage of the proceedings.