Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously held that private parties may recover clean up costs, even if voluntarily incurred, from other parties who are potentially responsible for polluting a site.

The decision could have significant repercussions in Superfund-rich states like New Jersey where previous decisions have limited the ability of corporations and other private parties who voluntarily pay–sometimes into the millions–for site cleanups to seek reimbursement from others whose actions contributed to the the site’s contamination.

One of New Jersey’s preeminent Superfund attorneys, William H. Hyatt, Jr. analyzes the court’s unanimous, June 11 decision in a K&L/Gates Environmental, Land Use and Natural Resources Alert published with colleagues Emily L. Won and Karyllan Dodson Mack