Nonbinding Allocation Of Responsibility ISSL

Nonbinding Allocation of Responsibility ISSL in the United States

Nonbinding Allocation of Responsibility ISSL (NBAR) in Environmental Law

A discretionary manner of determining what proportion of the cleanup costs a potentially responsible party at a hazardous waste site should bear. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) may do NBAR calculations in an effort to settle a case and get the cleanup underway.

As its name indicates, an NBAR does not forever decide the limit of liability. The Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act, the law under which abandoned hazardous waste sites are remediated, provides for joint and several liability; that is, each party is responsible separately and jointly for all costs associated with cleanup. If the lawsuit cannot be settled, the EPA may go back to the statute and claim that the liability need not be apportioned.

The EPA does not have to issue an NBAR; in fact, it seldom does. They are time-consuming to calculate, and the potentially responsible parties will often do their own apportionment of costs as the information is made available. If the agency does complete an NBAR, it is done during the early stages of the response action.

Assuming an NBAR is to be issued, the EPA looks at a number of factors to reach its decision. First, it considers the toxicity, volume, mobility, and strength of the wastes contributed by each party. It also considers the weight of the evidence, ability to pay, litigation risks, public interest, precedential value, and inequities or aggravating factors. An NBAR lists the parties, ranked according to the above factors. It may be issued after the remedial investigation/feasibility study is completed, since that phase of the cleanup activity determines what problems exist at the site and what methods could be used to clean it up. See also National Priority List; Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act.
Based on “Environment and the Law. A Dictionary”.


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