The United States District Court for the Northern District of New York refused to enter a CERCLA consent decree between the United States and four municipalities at the Sidney Landfill. The proposed consent decree was the first to use EPA's municipal solid waste ("MSW") settlement policy, which sets a figure of $5.30 per ton as the presumptive clean-up costs for MSW.
The nonsettling defendants opposed the decree by charging that $5.30 does not fairly represent the per-ton remediation costs at a typical MSW landfill. The Court agreed with the nonsettling defendants and found that the proposed consent decree was unfair because it provided contribution protection to the settling municipalities at too low a price. The Court explained that EPA's MSW settlement policy is not fair or reasonable because the projected site costs are known, and hence, no need existed to use EPA's cost model. The Court, therefore, rejected the consent decree. U.S. v. AlliedSignal Inc., Civil Action No. 97-CV-436 (N.D.N.Y.)
