ELR Citation: ELR 20174
No(s). C08-5722 (W.D. Wash. Jun 7, 2010)

A district court held a state transportation agency may be held liable for cleanup costs incurred at the Commencement Bay-Nearshore Tideflats Superfund Site in Tacoma, Washington, for contamination stemming from a highway construction project and highway stormwater runoff. The agency argued it could not be held liable as an arranger under CERCLA because it did not have control over the release of hazardous substances and it did not intend to dispose of hazardous substances. But the agency arranged for disposal by designing, constructing, and operating drainage systems whose sole function was to collect highway runoff and dispose of it into nearby waterbodies. The agency also had knowledge that the runoff contained hazardous substances and there was an actual release of the hazardous substances into the environment. Although the agency may not have had control of the hazardous substances, it did have control over how the collected runoff was disposed of. It designed the drainage system and had the ability to redirect, contain, or treat its contaminated runoff. The agency, therefore, is a PRP under CERCLA.