ELR Citation: ELR 20470
No(s). H-91-830 (S.D. Tex. Sep 20, 1994)

The court holds that the U.S. government may recover, under §107 of the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA), its costs of overseeing performance of remedial actions that private parties conducted at the Dixie Oil Processors Superfund site in Texas. The court finds unpersuasive the Third Circuit's reasoning in United States v. Rohm & Haas, 23 ELR 21345 (1993), where that court held that government oversight costs incurred in monitoring a private hazardous waste cleanup under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act are not recoverable under CERCLA §107. The court finds that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA's) oversight of cleanups that liable parties conduct fits squarely within the terms of CERCLA §§107(a) and 101(23). Oversight is necessary to "prevent, minimize, or mitigate" damages to public welfare, and is necessary to "monitor, assess, and evaluate" the release or threatened release of hazardous substances into the environment. Moreover, if the court were to find otherwise, it would lead to the incongruous result that EPA could recover the costs of overseeing its own contractors, but not the costs of overseeing those hired by the potentially responsible parties.

Counsel for Petitioner
Carrick Brooke-Davidson
Environment and Natural Resources Division
U.S. Department of Justice, Washington DC 20530
(202) 514-2000

Counsel for Respondent
James E. McNerney Jr.
Benckenstein & Oxford
400 W. 15th St., Ste. 719, Austin TX 78701
(512) 474-8586