California v. Neville Chemical Company

For decades, Neville Chemical Company (Neville) (defendant) manufactured chemical compounds that contaminated the groundwater and soil at the company’s industrial facility in Santa Fe Springs, California. The California Department of Toxic Substances Control (the department) (plaintiff) issued a remedial-action order directing a clean-up process. Initially, the department had a policy of requiring cooperative parties to pay only an activity fee to partially cover the department’s costs of oversight. In 1989, the department charged Neville an activity fee of about $47,000. In 1992, the department changed its policy in favor of pursuing the full recovery costs it incurred in overseeing a clean-up of hazardous substances. Subsequently, over several years, Neville complied with the department’s remedial-action order, presenting findings, feasibility studies, proposals, and a final remediation plan. In 1995, the department approved Neville’s final remediation plan. The department sued Neville in district court under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) to recover the department’s full recovery costs of $760,000. Neville defensively argued that it should only have to pay the activity fee based on principles of waiver and estoppel or alternatively that the department’s chosen response plan was not consistent with the national contingency plan (NCP). The district court ruled in favor of the department, and Neville appealed.