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Little Waste Goes A Long Way: The Recovery Of Response Costs Under Cercla, A, Cathi M. Kraetzer

Missouri Law Review

In Johnson v. James Langley Operating Co., the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit held that plaintiffs, in order to impose liability on defendants, need not show that they incurred response costs by acting to contain a release that threatened public health or the environment. By rejecting the Fifth Circuit’s holding in Amoco Oil Co. v. Borden, Inc., the court created a circuit split. This Note argues that the Eighth Circuit’s liberal interpretation of the plain language of CERCLA furthers the goals of the statute more than the Fifth Circuit’s narrow interpretation. This Note also argues that …