This guide covers environmental contamination liability and cleanup from the first discovery through closure and cost recovery. It begins with the federal cleanup statute's liability architecture — four categories of responsible party, and liability that is strict, retroactive, and frequently joint and several — and with the case law that has narrowed arranger and parent-company liability. Defense chapters cover the statutory defenses and the three landowner protections that grew from them, with sustained attention to all appropriate inquiries and the continuing obligations that must be maintained afterward. Recovery chapters distinguish cost recovery from contribution, explain the sequence of cases that defines the boundary, and treat allocation, divisibility, and settlement protection. Later chapters cover the parallel statutes, state programs where most cleanups occur, the remedial process from discovery through closure, vapor intrusion and reopeners, historical insurance and other funding sources, transactional practice for buyers, sellers, tenants, and lenders, and litigation.