Land Use Controls Practice Questions

The environmental law that imposes liability on current and past owners for hazardous waste cleanup, even if they did not cause the contamination, is:

CERCLA (the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act, "Superfund") imposes strict, joint, and several liability on owners — including innocent ones — for cleanup costs. Common trap: students think only the polluter is liable; CERCLA reaches current and prior owners.

A property surveyed and found to extend over a neighbor's boundary line has created a/an:

An encroachment is an unauthorized physical intrusion of a structure (fence, eave, driveway) onto adjoining property. Common trap: students call it an easement; an easement is a legal RIGHT to use, while an encroachment is a wrongful intrusion.

The process by which the government determines fair compensation when taking private property is:

Condemnation is the legal process used to exercise eminent domain and determine just compensation. Dedication is a private gift of land to the public; escheat is reversion of ownerless property. Common trap: students confuse condemnation (the legal process) with eminent domain (the underlying power).