Valbruna Slater Steel Corp. v. Joslyn Mfg. Co.

摘要

Current owners of contaminated site incurred over $2 million in recoverable response costs under Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act, because, even though costs incurred to raze melt shop on site, erect vapor barrier under replacement building, conduct studies to ensure worker safety at site, and remove bunker oil tanks and transformer not at risk of leaking did not remediate existing threats from site and are not necessary recoverable costs: (1) commercial motivation is irrelevant to whether costs are necessary response costs and prospective purchaser agreement contributions used for reme diation, site assessments, leaking passivation sump removal, and contaminated soil removal were used to address threats to human health and environment and were incurred consistent with national contin-gency plan, and (2) even though not all costs were included in cost tracking sheets, costs from other sources were substantiated and evidence established costs were necessary and consistent with NCR.