Pete Keays of Hangley Aronchick Segal Pudlin & Schiller
In June, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear Atlantic Richfield v. Christen (No. 17-1498), which is poised to be one of the court’s most significant CERCLA (or Superfund) cases in recent years. At issue is whether CERCLA bars a group of property owners at a major Superfund site from bringing a state common law claim against Atlantic Richfield Corp. (ARCO) for damages to cover the cost of remedial work that the property owners wish to conduct beyond the work EPA ordered ARCO to perform on their properties.
Fundamentally, Atlantic Richfield is about the scope and preemptive effect of the EPA’s authority over the cleanup of contaminated sites, the extent to which parties performing remediation may be held liable for work beyond that which the EPA determines is necessary, and the rights of landowners to even perform such work. The outcome of the case could have profound implications for the Superfund program and contaminated sites throughout the country.
