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T4: Rosevill� City Council <br />Attachment A <br />GREENE ESPEL MEMQRANDUIVI <br />PH.o�'ESS�a1vn�, L�az�TEn Lt,asr�.�TV PnxrhEes��ir <br />S�r�TE 12.00 <br />2OO SOUTH SIXTEI STREET <br />I1'1[1VYEAPOLiS� 1111NNESOTA $54OZ <br />(G12�) 373-083D F,ax (612} 373-6929 <br />PRIVILEGED AND CONF�DENTIAL <br />F'ROM: Larry D. Espel, Gree�e Espel PLLP <br />DATE:: December 17, 2007 <br />RE: Environrrten�crl Cost Recovery <br />Intiroduction <br />We have been requested to prepare, for ihe benefit of the Roseville City Co�ncil, an <br />intraductory sumrnary describing the process hy which the City could attempt to have current andlor <br />previous property owners pay for any enviranmental cantamination that they may have caused in the <br />Rosevi�le Twin Lakes Redevelopment Area. <br />The principal available options include various statutory or coininon �aw claims Ehat �an <br />support private cost recovery, declaratory reiief or injunctiive r�lief. In same circumstances, federal <br />or state a�encies will take steps to mandate response actians by private parties. 7'he following <br />memarandum will outline the various alternatives. <br />�C�1 <br />Under the Resourc� Conservatron and necovery Act ("RCRA"), 42 U. S.C. §§ 6971, et seq., <br />the City could pursue injunctive relief (not cost recovery) against past or current generators or <br />operators who contributed ta environmental problerns. Under 42 U.S.C. � 6972{a){1)(B), "any <br />person may commence a civil action on his own behali *** again.st any person, including any past <br />or preseni �enerator ... ar past or present owner or operator of a treatment, storage, or disposal <br />facility, who has conCrib�ited ... to the past or present handling, storage, treatrnent, transportatian, or <br />dispasal of any solid or hazardous waste which may present an imminent and subsiantial <br />endangerment to health or the environment." RCRA allows injunctive relief to c�mpel the past or <br />present owner or operatar ta cease dispasal ar to take such other action as rnay be necessary. This is <br />not a cast recovery remedy. Howeve�; courts can order �esp�nsible persans to pay future response <br />costs. <br />