1.   Although mining companies have been subject to certain cleanup costs under other statutes, the Mining Act itself imposes no penalties for careless behavior.

2.   An appeals court, however, said the law allows claims to recover cleanup costs from previous property owners.

3.   An interest expense credit and insurance proceeds from a fire last year at an Indiana mill offset a charge for environmental cleanup costs.

4.   And in places like Long Island, where the water table is high and the soil is generally porous, cleanup costs can skyrocket.

5.   And state regulators in Massachusetts and elsewhere are allowing utilities to pass along huge cleanup costs to ratepayers.

6.   But David Rice, the chief author of the Lawrence Livermore study, said he expects cleanup costs statewide will be lowered by half.

7.   But would it be fair to further burden taxpayers who already are paying a significant chunk of the cleanup cost?

8.   Cleanup costs are borne largely by private interests.

9.   Cleanup costs are difficult to estimate.

10.   Contamination there still lingers, gobbling up millions in cleanup costs.