Cadillac Fairview/California, Inc. v. Dow Chemical Co.

This is a CERCLA dispute about whether the federal government can make a company that discharged pollutants into the soil at the government’s direction and under its control during World War II, in a war production plant, pay part of the cost of cleaning them up.

Facts

In 1942, the Japanese had conquered almost all of the world’s major natural rubber-producing areas in Southeast Asia. The Germans had perfected a synthetic rubber substitute, Buna-S, which they were manufacturing as quickly as possible at several plants, including the I.G. Farben plant in Auschwitz that used Jewish slaves. 1 American manufacture had been retarded by the Depression, which reduced demand for rubber, and, by a cooperative research agreement Standard Oil had made with I.G. Farben in 1927, during the Weimar period. 2 As a result of the rubber shortage, tirés had to be strictly rationed in the United States to preserve rubber for such myriad military uses as truck and aircraft tires and-tubes, tank treads, equipment hoses and belts, footwear, medical supplies, life rafts, flotation equipment, barrage balloons, waterproof equipment, landing boats, gas masks and wire insulation.

The war was not…