Opinion ID: 4458383
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Cost recovery

Text: Anyone who cleans up a brownfield may sue the site’s polluters to recover “any . . . necessary costs of response.” 42 U.S.C. § 9607(a)(4)(B). If a cost-recovery suit succeeds, the defendants are strictly as well as jointly and severally liable. Pa. Dep’t of Envtl. Prot. v. Trainer Custom Chem., LLC, 906 F.3d 85, 89–90 (3d Cir. 2018). For “remedial action[s]” (that is, “those actions consistent with permanent remedy”), the statute of limitations for a cost-recovery action is six years from when the cleanup begins. 42 U.S.C. §§ 9601(24), 9613(g)(2)(B). Four kinds of “potentially responsible part[ies]” may be liable for cost recovery, including the site’s current owner and anyone who owned the site “at the time of disposal of any hazardous substance.” Id. § 9607(a)(1)–(2); 40 C.F.R. § 304.12(m). But an owner is immune from liability if it bought the site as a 4 “bona fide prospective purchaser.” 42 U.S.C. §§ 9601(40), 9607(r)(1). To qualify, the owner must show (among other things) that “[a]ll disposal of hazardous substances . . . occurred before [it] acquired the facility.” Id. § 9601(40)(B)(i).