Hazardous waste and bankruptcy: Confronting the unasked questions
The total cost of cleaning up all of the hazardous waste sites in the United States is expected to exceed one trillion dollars. With the cleanup costs at individual waste sites often exceeding forty million dollars, an increasing number of companies that generated or disposed of hazardous waste are filing for bankruptcy because they lack the money to pay the cleanup costs required by the Comprehensive Environmental Response Compensation and Liability Act of 1980 (CERCLA). As a result, over the past decade, federal bankruptcy courts have confronted an increasing number of cases questioning whether the unique harms associated with hazardous waste justify special treatment under the Bankruptcy Code. The courts have struggled to determine the extent to which the limited assets of a bankrupt company should be used to pay for environmental cleanups instead of going to the company`s creditors.
- OSTI ID:
- 226838
- Journal Information:
- Virginia Environmental Law Journal, Journal Name: Virginia Environmental Law Journal Journal Issue: 2 Vol. 13; ISSN XZ490W
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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