Opinion ID: 1303724
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Portec

Text: Portec has never owned any of the land at the Water Street Site. However, between 1968 and 1997, Portec owned land to the northeast of Area 2, and used the land to house a rail-splitting plant that Portec operated from 1900 to 1989. During the time in question, the Wynantskill Creek ran along the northern part of Portec's property, crossed Area 2, and emptied into the Hudson River. From 1908 on, Portec was a member of the Wynantskill Improvement Association. At various points, Portec also served as the chair and, eventually, the sole member of the Association. The Wynantskill Improvement Association was a nonprofit organization designed to improve the Wynantskill Creek for milling purposes through a variety of methods, including regulating the flow of the water, connecting lakes and ponds to the Creek, and constructing dams. Portec is the sole remaining member of the Association, and consequently, may hold title to a portion of the Wynantskill Creek. NiMo argues that Portec is liable as a PRP because its membership in the Association renders Portec responsible for the activities of the Association as a whole. To NiMo, the Association's control of the Wynantskill Creek makes it liable for waste in the Creek. NiMo alternatively claims that Portec is liable for contribution because it permitted the disposal of hazardous materials on its property, those hazardous materials entered the Wynantskill Creek and, eventually, they contaminated Area 2. Portec counters that it is not liable under CERCLA because it never owned or operated any of the property at the Water Street Site, and that there is no legal basis for assigning CERCLA liability based on membership in a non-profit corporation. We need not reach the thorny issue of whether membership in such an association could result in CERCLA liability because we find that Portec is liable under a much simpler theory. Under § 107(a)(2), a PRP may be liable under CERCLA if it at the time of disposal of any hazardous substance. operated any facility at which such hazardous substances were disposed of. 42 U.S.C. § 9607(a)(2). The definition of operator is very broad in the CERCLA context. See United States v. Bestfoods, 524 U.S. 51, 65-66, 118 S.Ct. 1876, 141 L.Ed.2d 43 (1998). To be an operator under the statute, a person must manage, direct, or conduct operations specifically related to pollution, that is, operations having to do with the leakage or disposal of hazardous waste. Id. at 66-67, 118 S.Ct. 1876. Under this definition, Portec is a PRP under CERCLA because Portec conducted operations specifically related to pollution at the Wynantskill Creek. There is evidence that Portec's activities on its property resulted in hazardous waste deposits. Spent solvents and quench oils [25] were not properly removed from the plant. Underground pipes leaked fuel oil. Neighboring properties suffered spills. Soil sampling from the Portec property revealed a number of hazardous substances in the ground. More importantly for NiMo's purposes, there is evidence that these hazardous deposits made their way into the Wynantskill Creek and into the Hudson River. Portec used the Wynantskill Creek to discharge waste from its plant. Surface and ground water traveled across Portec's property into the Creek. The Creek, in turn, passed through Area 2 on its way to the Hudson. During its travels across Area 2, the water in the Creek appears to have left behind hazardous materials. These hazardous materials, according to one of NiMo's experts, originated at the Portec Plant. In the planned remediation of Area 2, NiMo may have to cleanup this waste, along with the waste that NiMo itself deposited there. Thus, Portec operated a facility where hazardous waste was deposited and NiMo may have to clean that waste as part of its remediation plan for Area 2. This meets the necessary statutory elements to attach liability to Portec. Because Portec qualifies as a PRP under CERCLA, and because there is evidence in the record that Portec may have deposited hazardous materials that settled in Area 2, the district court erred in its grant of summary judgment to Portec.