Higgins

MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER

Plaintiff Lincoln Properties, Ltd. (“Lincoln”) is the owner of Lincoln Center, a 110-store shopping center on a thirty-acre parcel of land in San Joaquin County near Stockton, California. Over the years some of Lincoln’s tenants have been dry cleaners who used perchloroethylene (“PCE”) in the course of their business. In December 1984 the County discovered that PCE had entered one of its wells in the vicinity of Lincoln Center. As a result of this discovery, Lincoln undertook further tests and determined that PCE had entered the groundwater and soil below Lincoln Center. The full extent of the contamination is not known. The exact way in which the PCE entered the groundwater is disputed, although some PCE was discharged from leaky sewer lines.

Lincoln concedes that because it is the owner of Lincoln Center it is liable in the first instance for the costs of cleanup under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (“CERCLA”), 42 U.S.C. §§ 9601 et seq. In this action, Lincoln seeks recovery under CERCLA of response costs and contribution from the dry cleaners and the County. Various dry cleaning defendants have also pled…