Toward an Optimal System of Successor Liability for Hazardous Waste Cleanup
![handle is hein.journals/staev6 and id is 230 raw text is: Toward an Optimal System of Successor
Liability for Hazardous Waste
Cleanup*
Steven Semeraro**
Before the harmful effects of hazardous waste were under-
stood, firms rid themselves of the useless byproducts of their
manufacturing processes by burying them. These firms relied on
the plausible theory that toxic chemicals would lose their danger-
ous properties long before they leaked.' By the 1970s, this the-
ory proved to be wrong. Congress, spurred by public outcry,2
responded by enacting a regulatory system to ensure that firms
properly disposed of their currently produced wastes.' Regula-
tion, however, no matter how effective, could not undo decades
of indiscriminate dumping. Thousands of inactive toxic dumps
now exist,4 some of which remain latent disasters hidden beneath
* Recognized by the Stanford Law Faculty as the runner-up for the Olaus and
Adolph Murie Award in Environmental Law.
** B.A., Rutgers College, 1984;J.D., Stanford Law School, 1987.
1. Magnuson, A Problem That Cannot Be Buried: The Poisoning of America Continues,
TIME, Oct. 14, 1985, at 84.
2. Examples of hazardous waste disasters receiving significant press attention in-
clude the Love Canal area of Niagara Falls, N.Y. and Times Beach, Mo. President Carter
declared the former a national disaster in August, 1978. Note, Strict Liability for Genera-
tors, Transporters, and Disposers of Hazardous Wastes, 64 MINN. L. REV. 949, 949-951 (1980).
3. See Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), 42 U.S.C. §§ 6901-6987
(1982). This law regulates the disposal of currently produced hazardous waste, and it
imposes civil and criminal penalties on violators.
4. Although the number of sites certainly runs into the thousands and perhaps
hundreds of thousands, estimates differ widely as to the exact number of sites and the
expense of the total cleanup necessary. See e.g., Office of Solid Waste and Emergency
Response, United States Environmental Protection Agency, EXTENT OF TE HAZARDOUS
RELEASE PROBLEM AND FUTURE FUNDING NEEDS CERCLA SECTION 301(A)(1)(C) STUDYv:
FINAL REPORT (Dec. 1984) [Hereinafter HAZARDOUS RELEASE PROBLEM]. The National
Priority List of hazardous sites is expected to grow to between 1500 and 2500 in the
next few years. Id. at i. However, many non-NLP sites also pose a danger. Id. at § 2 p.2.
See also Anderson, Negotiation and Informal Agency Action: The Case of Superfund 1985 DUKE
LJ. 261, 267-68 n. 14.](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/staev6&div=14&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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Toward an Optimal System of Successor Liability for Hazardous Waste Cleanup
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