Westmont College Who Should Pay the Cost of Cleanup Discussion and Responses

Let’s provide a discussion platform in the area of environmental laws as it relates to real property ownership. There are many laws designed to protect the quality of water, land, and air known as environmental laws. For this sole discussion, let’s focus on federal environmental laws. There is the Clean Water Act, the Clean Air Act, and CERCLA which is the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act. Under CERCLA, in general, liability of hazardous waste cleanup rests with the owner of the real property even if the owner is not the person who created the hazardous waste problem. After reading the textbook and PPT to garner an understanding of CERCLA and why it was enacted:

1) Do you believe it is unfair to assess the owner for the cost of cleanup?

2) Who should pay the cost of cleanup?

3) Should it be paid out of government resources and the entire population to remedy the problem?

My hope for you in this discussion is for you to give some examples of situations related to these questions and to discuss why each example fits into either category. Please have some of your personal opinions in this discussion as well. Create your own answer by discussing your thoughts on the questions.

POST 1

Janae ThomasI do not. Owners need to take care of their own land and make sure everything is up to every code, standard or law. Every property owner should make it their responsibility to keep their property from contributing negatively to the environment they also inhabit themselves. Owners should take early precautions when attaining property to lessen the outside influence on their property’s environment. Owners must assume the risks.The real property owners should be financially responsible for any maintenance and clean up of their own property.The government should only be financially responsible for public places where taxes from citizens would be rightfully applied. If it is femmes available for public use, the government should remedy the situation with government resources.

POST 2

Christopher GroleauI believe it is unfair to assess the owner for the cost of cleanup if they are not the ones causing the Hazardous waste. I think with anything the fault should be on the person causing the hazard. If a neighboring property is dumping hazardous waste on my property they should have to be held responsible. If you buy property  with hazardous waste already there, then you are accepting that responsibility. I think the person who cause the hazardous waste should have to pay, not the owner of the property.Government resources would means taxing the people more to solve this problem and for that reason I would not want the government to be solely responsible. If corporations are dumping waste they need to be responsible for the clean up.