The dispute centers on a barge cleaning facility in Jennings, Louisiana, operated by an entity known as SBA from 1965 to 1993. During that period, barges owned by National Marine – the predecessor to American Commercial Barge Line (ACBL), an Indiana-based barge transportation company – were sent to the site for cleaning. National Marine merged with ACBL in 1998. Following an investigation of the site, the EPA entered into an agreement in December 2002 with SBA and a group of former customers of SBA’s barge cleaning operations, including ACBL. Then in 2015, the EPA notified ACBL of its ongoing investigation and identified the company as a potentially responsible party under CERCLA, the federal environmental law that governs Superfund site cleanups, because barges owned by its predecessor, National Marine, were among those delivered to the site. ACBL entered into a further agreement with the EPA and other responsible parties in 2016, and the coverage fight followed.
