Who can be a potentially responsible party (PRP) at a hazardous waste site?
• Current owners or operators, • Owners or operators at the time of disposal, • Generators and parties that arrange or arranged for disposal, and • Transporters that select or selected disposal sites. Current owners can be liable for a site without having contributed to the release. Current operators are any parties that control current operations at the site. The key factor in establishing the liability of a former owner or operator is that disposal must have occurred while the party owned or operated the site. Such owners or operators need not have contributed to the release. The term generator has come to be used as the term for anyone who arranged for disposal (the definition differs from that under RCRA). Generators are often the largest group of PRPs, sometimes including thousands of people and companies at any given site.
