ELR Citation: ELR 20080
No(s). 95-CV-6400L (W.D.N.Y. Apr 20, 2006)

A court holds that a manufacturing company need not contribute to response costs incurred by the owner of a landfill near Seneca Falls, New York. The landfill was closed in 1974, but the owner was ordered to remediate the site after it decided to reopen and expand the landfill. The evidence suggests that trichloroethylene (TCE) caused the contamination at the site, and the owner failed to establish that the manufacturing company deposited liquid TCE or any other material containing TCE at or near the site. In addition, the landfill owner's argument that it should be responsible for only 50% of the response costs was unpersuasive, not supported by the evidence, and arbitrary. Instead, much of the so-called response costs should be attributed to the landfill, as the work at the site has resulted in great economic benefit to the owner. Moreover, the court posits that the landfill owner is merely seeking to extract funds for work that it could have, and should have, performed itself, at its own expense, 20 years earlier when the site was closed. There were problems at the site in the 1970s, and the owner's failure to deal with those problems to the extent necessary exacerbated the situation and caused the site to deteriorate.

[A prior decision in this litigation is published at 29 ELR 20224.]