U.S. Argues Guam Win In Supreme Court Case Could Delay Site Cleanups

摘要

The U.S. government is asking the Supreme Court to uphold an appeals court decision that has blocked Guam from pursuing recovery of Superfund cleanup costs from the Navy, contending the territory's arguments lack merit, misread the statute and could result in delaying contaminated site cleanups.The United States filed its response brief in Guam v. United States March 24, urging the high court to uphold a February 2020 ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, which found Guam is limited in pursuing cleanup costs from the United States through section 113(f)(3)(B) of the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation & Liability Act (CERCLA) for a former Navy landfill.That clause is CERCLA's contribution provision, which has a three-year statute of limitations triggered at the time a plaintiff reaches a settlement with the government resolving its liability for response actions. In this case, the appeals court ruled Guam missed the window for recovering costs as the limitations statute under section 113 ran out years ago.