Enforcing CERCLA’s Three Year Statute of Limitations for Removal Actions

Although courts are sometimes reluctant to enforce them, there really are hard stops in CERCLA, particularly the three year statute of limitations for recovery of costs incurred in a removal action. In Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection v. Beazer East, Inc., the Third Circuit recently affirmed the dismissal of a CERCLA cost recovery action by the State of Pennsylvania on the basis of the three year limitations period for removal actions. There, the state had undertaken over $3 million of response actions at a Superfund site in 2004 but delayed until 2009 in commencing a cost recovery action. The federal district court dismissed the action on statute of limitations grounds.