## Facts

- Olin Corporation operated a chemical manufacturing facility in McIntosh, Alabama, from 1951, producing mercury- and chlorine-based chemicals until 1982.
- The operations contaminated portions of Olin’s property, including an area designated Operable Unit #1 (OU-1), leaving soil and groundwater unfit for future residential use.
- The contamination was largely contained onsite due in part to controlled groundwater flow, but offsite migration was possible if containment failed (e.g., a leaking well).
- The United States, acting at the request of the EPA Administrator, brought a civil action under CERCLA seeking a cleanup order and reimbursement of response costs for OU-1.
- The parties negotiated a proposed consent decree requiring Olin to perform and/or fund remedial measures and pay specified costs, covering contamination occurring both before and after CERCLA’s effective date (Dec. 11, 1980).

## Issues

1. Whether CERCLA may be constitutionally applied under the Commerce Clause to require cleanup and cost recovery where the environmental effects are confined to the defendant’s own property.
2. Whether CERCLA’s cleanup liability provisions apply only prospectively, or also impose liability for pre-enactment releases and disposals.

## Decision

- The Eleventh Circuit reversed the district court’s dismissal and remanded.
- CERCLA was held constitutional as applied because it regulates a class of hazardous waste disposal and release activities that substantially affect interstate commerce.
- CERCLA’s liability provisions were held to apply retroactively to pre-enactment conduct and existing contamination.
- The district court’s refusal to enter the proposed consent decree could not stand given its erroneous constitutional and retroactivity rulings.

## Legal Principles

- For Commerce Clause review, the proper focus is whether the class of activities regulated by the statute substantially affects interstate commerce, not whether a particular site has proven interstate effects in the individual case.
- Federal regulation may reach intrastate hazardous waste disposal and onsite contamination when it is part of a broader scheme regulating economic activity with substantial aggregate effects on interstate commerce.
- CERCLA’s text and structure reflect congressional intent to impose cleanup and cost-recovery liability for releases and disposals that occurred before CERCLA’s enactment, including liability tied to historical contamination that continues to present a threat.
- A lack of a case-by-case jurisdictional element does not invalidate CERCLA where the regulated category of activity is economic and substantially affects interstate commerce.

## Conclusion

The Eleventh Circuit held that CERCLA may be enforced against a facility even when contamination is primarily onsite and that CERCLA imposes retroactive cleanup and cost-recovery liability for pre-1980 releases, requiring reinstatement of the government’s action and further proceedings on the proposed resolution.


United States v. Olin Corp., 107 F.3d 1506 (11th Cir. 1997)