Untangling Superfund Liability for Current and Historical Steel Mill Facilities at the Portland Harbor NPL Site

OUR CHALLENGE

Our client operates a steel mill and associated facilities within a large Superfund site and is known for their cooperative and active participation in the potentially responsible party group.  As part of an allocation process, we supported our client in submitting a vast body of technical materials describing their current and historically operated facilities. These facilities are frequent targets within opposing parties’ expert reports, making it a challenge to move through the allocation process. The process also requires a detailed understanding of the operations and contaminant inputs of dozens of other industries over time to develop a coherent conceptual site model explaining contaminant presence and distribution. 

OUR APPROACH

Working closely with counsel and other experts, Integral took a fresh look at the wealth of maps, aerial photos, environmental studies, and industry reports to critically evaluate the potential handling and discharge of contaminants to the harbor from our client and other parties.  Integral’s expert, comprehensive reports countered the other parties’ over–simplifications of steel industry operations, repeated historical narrative errors, and overly broad application of the doorstep theory of contaminant allocation.  Forensic evaluations and sediment transport modeling rounded out the multipronged approach, particularly for in-water areas subject to deposition of upstream-sourced contaminated sediment. 

OUR IMPACT

Identifying the other contributors to sediment impacts and countering the misdirected claims of other parties has laid the groundwork for successful future allocation agreements and equitable division of responsibility for cleanup.