§ 130A-310.7. Action for reimbursement; liability of responsible parties; notification of completed remedial action.
§ 130A‑310.7. Actionfor reimbursement; liability of responsible parties; notification of completedremedial action.
(a) Notwithstanding anyother provision or rule of law, and subject only to the defenses set forth inthis subsection, any person who:
(1) Discharges ordeposits; or
(2) Contracts orarranges for any discharge or deposit; or
(3) Accepts fordischarge or deposit; or
(4) Transports orarranges for transport for the purpose of discharge or deposit
any hazardous substance, theresult of which discharge or deposit is the existence of an inactive hazardoussubstance or waste disposal site, shall be considered a responsible party.Neither an innocent landowner who is a bona fide purchaser of the inactivehazardous substance or waste disposal site without knowledge or without areasonable basis for knowing that hazardous substance or waste disposal hadoccurred nor a person whose interest or ownership in the inactive hazardoussubstance or waste disposal site is based on or derived from a security interestin the property shall be considered a responsible party. A responsible partyshall be directly liable to the State for any or all of the reasonablynecessary expenses of developing and implementing a remedial action program forsuch site. The Secretary shall bring an action for reimbursement of theInactive Hazardous Sites Cleanup Fund in the name of the State in the superiorcourt of the county in which the site is located to recover such sum and thecost of bringing the action. The State must show that a danger to the publichealth or the environment existed and that the State complied with theprovisions of this Part.
(b) There shall be noliability under this section for a person who can establish by a preponderanceof the evidence that the danger to the public health or the environment causedby the site was caused solely by:
(1) An act of God; or
(2) An act of war; or
(3) An intentional actor omission of a third party (but this defense shall not be available if theact or omission is that of an employee or agent of the defendant, or if the actor omission occurs in connection with a contractual relationship with thedefendant); or
(4) Any combination ofthe above causes.
(c) The definitions setout in G.S. 130A‑310.31(b) apply to this subsection. Any person maysubmit a written request to the Department for a determination that a site thatis subject to this Part has been remediated to unrestricted use standards asprovided in Part 5 of Article 9 of Chapter 130A of the General Statutes. Arequest for a determination that a site has been remediated to unrestricted usestandards shall be accompanied by the fee required by G.S. 130A‑310.39(a)(2).If the Department determines that the site has been remediated to unrestricteduse standards, the Department shall issue a written notification that nofurther remediation will be required at the site. The notification shall statethat no further remediation will be required at the site unless the Departmentlater determines, based on new information or information not previouslyprovided to the Department, that the site has not been remediated tounrestricted use standards or that the Department was provided with false orincomplete information. Under any of those circumstances, the Department maywithdraw the notification and require responsible parties to remediate the siteto unrestricted use standards. (1987, c. 574, s. 2; 1989, c. 286, s. 6; 1989 (Reg.Sess., 1990), c. 1004, s. 10; c. 1024, s. 30(b); 1997‑357, s. 5; 2001‑384,s. 11.)