DIRECTIONS: The point of this paper is to use what you learned up to this point in the course to identify possible violations of hazardous waste law (CERCLA and RCRA) in a real-world type situation. This exercise requires you to identify potentially responsible parties as well as likely claims and defenses. In other words, you are to act as an EPA official and review the record provided below to identify each party’s exposure to liability, as well as their potential defenses under CERCLA and RCRA.
You don’t need to write a formal essay and do not include a title page, abstract or table of contents (just use the 1st page header in the syllabus). You can organize your paper by listing each of the parties who could be held responsible under RCRA and CERCLA (some parties may fall under both), and for each potentially responsible party, describe the potential violations and possible penalties – as well as any possible defenses that could be claimed (and whether those may succeed on the facts here) – in one or more short paragraphs. Identify a defense that a party could theorectically raise, even if you then state you don’t think that defense would be upheld in these facts. You can also note if a potential violation would require more facts to make a final determination of liability that are missing from this fact pattern. This includes government action and private party enforcement options if applicable. There is no particular word minimum or maximum for this paper.
A bullet point list (or outline) of phrases or terms is NOT acceptable; complete sentences describing the potential factual or legal issues are required for each party. But do NOT write an overall intro or conclusion that summarizes the fact pattern as a whole (I won’t read it and it won’t give you extra points). Refer to facts given in this hypothetical where relevant in your discussions of different party violations, defenses or liabilities. If you use an acronym, explain what it means.
REFERENCES & CITATIONS: You may ONLY use your textbook and the weekly slides/videos as references to support your explanations of certain violations or defenses. You should include internal citations and page references to certain parts of RCRA or CERCLA as described in the textbook, but block quoting from those sources will not add to your score. You do not need to find the statutes or case opinions separately from the book for internal citation and may use the RCRA and CERCLA chapter authors and page numbers as your internal references per Turabian Rule 19.1.9.
For example you could refer to “the requirement that generators must prepare a manifest under RCRA Section 3002” (Otum 2017, 170-171).
Similarly, you can refer to the textbook discussion of a rule from a court decision in this same way with internal reference to the textbook chapter and page, not the underlying case itself.
Include a references page for the textbook chapters and video lecture slides used.
I am looking for your ability to spot potential liabilities and defenses in this fact pattern citing to the portions of the law (statute or caselaw) describing the requirements of that violation or defense in the textbook and your arguments why they apply to the fact(s) you chose.
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