Quaker State Corp. v. United States Coast Guard

OPINION

GERALD J. WEBER, District Judge.

In this litigation the government seeks to recover from Quaker State the costs of excavation and removal of oil contaminated ground at a site in the Allegheny National Forest. The subject site was an abandoned containment pit once used in oil drilling operations, and was allegedly discharging oil into a creek in the National Forest.

Quaker State successfully rebuffed the government’s first attempt to impose liability under the Clean Water Act, 33 U.S.C. § 1321 et seq. based on the court’s conclusion that Quaker State was not an “owner or operator” within…