Determination of the remediability score for remediation liability allocation among polluters

When a pollution incident occurs, there can be impact liability and/or remediation liability on the polluter. The impact liability pays for the loss of life and property due to pollution. The remediation liability is to pay for remediating the environment in accordance with applicable laws and regulations. If there is only one polluter in a pollution incident, the entire liability can be placed on the sole polluter. However, liability allocation becomes complex when there are multiple polluters. To allocate the fractional remediation liability among multiple polluters, it is important to identify the factors that determine the cost of remediation so that a just distribution of liability can be made based on the contribution of each polluting party to the factors identified. Along with factors such as “quantity of the chemical released by the polluter,” “distribution of the chemical in the environmental medium,” “persistence of the chemical in the environmental medium,” and so forth, the ease with which the chemical pollutant can be separated from the contaminated medium, which we name as “remediability,” is important in deciding the remediation liability. The “remediability” of a chemical is critical in selecting the remediation technologies to be adopted and, consequently, in deciding the cost of remediation. Determination of a remediability score (RS) for each “chemical–environment medium” pair will help in quantifying the ease with which the site can be remediated. The score is envisaged on a 0–100 scale. The higher the score, the more difficult it is to remediate the chemical in the environmental medium under consideration. The score is estimated based on a set of predetermined factors that are characteristic to the technologies available for remediation. The factors are then subjected to a Delphi process to arrive at the weights. The overall RS is determined by determining the weighted impact of the identified factors after the normalization of the magnitudes of factors.