| Abstract: | Numerous state statutes provide guidance for allocating responsibility and response costs among potentially responsible parties at environmentally contaminated sites. Twenty-eight states explicitly or implicitly address joint and several liability; thirty states address allocation criteria; and two states identify how orphan share costs are shared. Of the thirty states that address allocation criteria in their statutes, twenty-four specify one or more criteria that may be applied to avoid joint and several liability, and twenty-nine permit the allocation of responsibility using unspecified equitable factors. The state allocation criteria tabulated and discussed in this article can be used by counsel and their technical consultants and experts to assess which, if any, state-specific criteria are most applicable to a particular site, given the technical, historical, financial, and regulatory information that may be available for that site. |
