Section 14 The Innocent Landowner

• Library: Environmental Law 2007 Supp

The American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) also updated the Phase I Site Assessment Process standard in 2000 and again in 2005.

SBLRBRA changed the requirements that a defendant must satisfy to qualify for the innocent landowner defense by providing that a defendant must observe certain continuing duties, including providing full cooperation, assistance, and facility access to persons authorized to conduct response actions or natural resource restoration. In addition, SBLRBRA fleshed out what is meant by the term “all appropriate inquiry” by requiring EPA to establish standards and practices for the purposes of satisfying the requirement to carry out all appropriate inquiries, and by establishing interim standards and practices. For property purchased before May 31, 1997, Congress provided that a court must take into account the factors listed in the Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act of 1986, Pub. L. No. 99-499, 100 Stat. 1613, as consistent with “good commercial and customary practice”:

• The defendant’s experience
• The purchase price
• Commonly known information about the property
• The obviousness of any contamination
• The ability of the defendant to discover any contamination

Pub. L. No. 107-118, § 222.

For property purchased on or after May 31...