Ann Catino, a partner in the Environmental and Land Use Group at Halloran & Sage, testified before the Environment Committee of the Connecticut General Assembly on March 3, 2006, in support of legislation to permit environmental cost recovery actions against parties responsible for contamination of Brownfield or polluted properties. She spoke in reference to Senate Bill 415 which creates a state based statutory framework permitting private cost recovery actions against a variety of potentially liable or culpable parties previously permitted to escape such claims under state law. Senate Bill 415 was proposed as a response to the United States Supreme Court decision in Cooper Industries v. Aviall, 125 S. Ct. 577 (2004), which curtailed the rights of many owners and operators of contaminated sites from seeking restorative and remedial costs from liable or potentially liable parties. In her testimony, Ann emphasized that the proposed bill provides state-based authority for the recovery of these costs which serves the underlying policy objective of promoting voluntary remediation of contaminated properties, transforming them for purposes of economic development and providing an equitable mechanism for insuring that responsible parties pay their share of the clean-up.