03-24-1999 Council Agenda - Laserfiche WebLink

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Thomas M. Sweeney, Esq. March 18, 1999 Page 2 with either the MPCA or the University of Minnesota, collectively paying hundreds of thousands of dollars, based on this type of evidence, Many of the units of local government, including Apple Valley, North St. Paul and St. Anthony, claimed that they had no documentation or records to show they did business with Schnitzer. The MPCA rejected these claims. Batteries could have come from any number of city departments. Although Little Canada and other cities may have a system tracking transactions with outside vendors, there would always be a chance that a' transaction was not included or that a city employee may have delivered the batteries and not fully accounted for the transaction. Because Schnitzer did much of its business in cash transactions, there may be no supporting checks or ledger entries in Little Canada's records. The weight tickets were used for internal purposes at Schnitzer only and many tickets contained partial names. No tickets listed an address of the supplier. This type of documentary evidence is often not available in Superfund cases. Many times employee or hauler testimony that a particular party used a site alone has been deemed sufficient to establish liability. The municipalities named at this site, along with the other companies who were named as potentially responsible parties at this site, evaluated the evidence, assessed their potential liability under state and federal law, considered the potential defense costs and ultimately decided to resolve their liability at the site. Needless to say, no party who contributed to cleanup is thrilled with being named as a potentially responsible party at the site. The facts reveal that a host of communities in your area routinely used this site. In this context, we believe that we do have a sufficient basis to maintain that Little Canada is a responsible party at this site. The environmental laws provide that parties who are linked to the site can be held jointly and severally liable for all cleanup costs. In this case, the Schnitzer Group paid more than its share. We are also seeking contribution for the monies paid by the Group. We have also received an assignment from the University and the Cities for their entire claim. The Schnitzer Site Group is in the process of gathering additional evidence about the companies and municipalities who used the Schnitzer site over time. We have interviewed former Schnitzer employees, including the individuals who weighed incoming materials and wrote up weight tickets and the bookkeeper, who are aware of parties that used the site. We feel confident that these witnesses will provide further support our claims against your client and many other entities that used the Schnitzer site. Page 124 E'd 6E __ ..,,.� my i ndNSSMS WOtd Wde0'D 6661 -61 -E