Phil Comella Quoted in Environmental Compliance Alert

Phil Comella's perspective on what the day-to-day compliance issues / challenges / requirements may be for environmental and facility managers regarding the "Community Right-to-Know bill" in IL are noted in the September 28 issue of Environmental Compliance Alert in the article "Right to Know Law : Voluntary Cleanups May Be Too Risky."

"Better think twice about voluntarily cleaning up chemical spills, leaks and other problems that end up on or under a neighboring property. Facilities could be opening themselves up to a new round of costly lawsuits. That's the warning raised by attorney Phil Comella about Illinois' new right-to-know law. He says the law is a "breeding ground" for lawsuits. Currently, there is no legal obligation to tell a neighbor about possible contamination problems. Under the new law, once a state realizes there's a threat (revealed when a facility initiates a voluntary cleanup) the state will immediately notify neighboring property owners about it. This puts the entire public on notice of the potential problem a facility may have to deal with and invites costly lawsuits because there's no agreement on how "clean" a cleanup should be.”