In early 2020, a microchip company purchased land from a company that previously manufactured Teflon materials used in clothing and pans. In October 2021, hazardous materials were found leaking into a neighborhood underground drinking aquifer contaminating private well water and producing gases that are making neighbors sick. The neighbors formed a community coalition and have gone to EPA to ask for an investigation. As a result, EPA found buried barrels of hazardous materials from the 1960s in an unmarked dump site. It also found information indicating that a shipping company had previously contracted with the manufacturing company who owned the land to allow it to dispose of other hazardous materials from dozens of other companies in that same unmarked underground dump. No hazardous materials have been placed in the buried dump site by the microchip company. a. What law(s) correctly apply to these environmental issues?
b. Who can be legally responsible for this? Why?
c. Are there possible defenses to protect these entities? If so, what are they? If not, why not?
d. Under the environmental law(s) at issue, what are the specific legal mechanisms that can be used to clean-up and protect the neighbors from these hazardous materials?