Opinion ID: 532512
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Release or Threatened Release

Text: 33 CERCLA states that: the owner and operator ... of a facility ... from which there is a release, or a threatened release which causes the incurrence of response costs, of a hazardous substance, shall be liable.... 42 U.S.C. Sec. 9607(a). 34 A hazardous substance is defined in CERCLA by reference to its provisions and that of other environmental statutes. 6 The VOCs that are at issue in this case, trichloroethane, trichloroethylene, dicloroethane, dichloroethylene, and tetrachloroethylene, fall within CERCLA's definition of hazardous substances. See 42 U.S.C. Sec. 9602; 40 C.F.R. Sec. 302.1, et seq. (designates hazardous substances under CERCLA, 42 U.S.C. Sec. 9602); 40 C.F.R. Sec. 116.4 (designates hazardous substances under the Clean Water Act, 33 U.S.C. Sec. 1321(b)(2)(A)). 35 (1) Releases 36 A release is defined by CERCLA as any spilling, leaking, pumping, pouring, emitting, emptying, discharging, injecting, escaping, leaching, dumping, or disposing into the environment.... 42 U.S.C. Sec. 9601(22). The courts have construed CERCLA's definition of release broadly. See, e.g., State of New York v. Shore Realty Corp., 759 F.2d at 1045 (2d Cir.1985) (releases include leaking tanks and pipelines, the continuing leaching and seepage from earlier spills, and leaking drums); United States v. Wade, 577 F.Supp. 1326, 1334 (E.D.Pa.1983) (releases include the leaching of hazardous substances into the soil). 37 (2) Threatened Releases 38 CERCLA has created two alternative liability-creating events: the release or the threatened release of a hazardous substance. See 42 U.S.C. Sec. 9607(a)(4) (if there is a release, or a threatened release which causes the incurrence of response costs, of a hazardous substance, [a covered person] shall be liable....) (emphasis added). While other environmental statutes, e.g. the Clean Water Act, make parties liable only for actual releases, CERCLA expressly expanded liability to also cover threatened releases. 39 Threatened releases have been found to include: a defendant's mere ownership of corroding and deteriorating tanks, a defendant's lack of expertise in handling hazardous waste, or a defendant's failure to license the facility. Shore Realty, 759 F.2d at 1045. See also United States v. Medley, 13 Chem. Waste Lit.Rep. 143, 146 (D.S.C. Nov. 4, 1986) (The emitting or release of volatile organics into the ambient air and the storage of hazardous substances in deteriorating or leaking drums and unlined lagoons at the Medley Farm site clearly constituted a 'release' or 'substantial threat' of release of hazardous substances into the environment.).