Question

Ace Hauling, Inc., has been transporting industrial tailings for companies around the Minneapolis/St. Paul area for the past decade. The site at which the tailings were dumped has been designated at a CERCLA Superfund site. Ace Hauling's board of directors voted to sell Ace to a new corporation created by legal counsel for Ace. All of Ace's assets, liabilities and contracts will be transferred to the new corporation whose owners are unaware of Ace's history. By creating the new corporation and transferring the assets: a. Ace can avoid liability under CERCLA. b. Ace has done nothing to change its CERCLA liability. c. Ace can avoid any contractual liability under CERCLA. d. Ace eliminates its liability if its directors have no say in running the new corporation. e. none of the above

Answer 1

Answer: The correct answer is "b. Ace has done nothing to change its CERCLA liability."

Explanation: CERCLA is the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Responsibility Act and was designed to promote cleaning, maintenance and protection of the environment against hazardous waste.

Those responsible for releasing dangerous substances are identified to take care of their cleaning through the superfunds, therefore by creating the new corporation and transferring the assets: Ace has done nothing to change its CERCLA liability.