Full opinion text
MEMORANDUM OF DECISION TORRES, District Judge. The history of this litigation is described in United States v. Davis, 20 F.Supp.2d 326 (D.R.I.1998), and United States v. Davis, 11 F.Supp.2d 183, 186-87 (D.R.I.1998). For present purposes it is sufficient to state that the United States commenced this action against United Technologies Corp. (“UTC”) and eight other parties, pursuant to the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (“CERCLA”), 42 U.S.C. §§ 9601-75, in order to recover response costs associated with remediating a hazardous waste site. UTC, in turn, asserted claims for contribution and/or indemnity against several co-defendants and 138 third- and fourth-party defendants. In addition, UTC requested that the Court enter a judgment allocating responsibility among the parties for future response costs. The government’s claims against UTC have been settled, see Davis, 11 F.Supp.2d at 194, and UTC’s claims against all but fifteen of the contribution defendants either have been settled or dismissed or have resulted in summary judgments in favor of the contribution defendants. Davis, 92 N.Y.2d 880, 678 N.Y.S.2d 27, 700 N.E.2d 565, 1998 WL 682890, at *1. What remains for resolution is UTC’s request for a declaratory judgment allocating responsibility for future cleanup costs among the fifteen remaining contribution defendants (the “defendants”). After carefully considering the testimony of the numerous witnesses presented and the voluminous exhibits introduced into evidence during a twenty-six-day bench trial, the Court makes the following findings of fact and draws the following conclusions of law. Findings of Fact I. Activity at the Site During 1976 and most of 1977, a variety of chemical wastes were deposited on land in Smithfield, Rhode Island, owned by William M. Davis and his wife, Eleanor Davis (the “Site” or “Davis Site”). According to William Davis, the dumping began “late in 1976” and continued until approximately September of 1977. During that period, at least 844,275 gallons of hazardous wastes were dumped at the Site. Almost all of the waste was delivered to the Site by four companies: CCC, CWR, Macera Brothers Container Service, Inc. (“Macera”), and Capuano (collectively the “transporters” or “the transporter defendants”). Small quantities of sewage sludge, “bunker C oil” and machine oil also were delivered by two other companies. Most of the waste was in liquid form and was delivered in either 5,000-gallon tanker trucks, fifty-five-gallon drums that had been loaded on flatbed trailers, or smaller containers ranging from five-gallon cans to small ampules, vials and jars. The transporters collected the waste from 170 customers, including the generator defendants. CWR and Macera did little more than haul the waste to various sites for disposal. CCC, on the other hand, also burned some of the flammable waste that it collected in an incinerator and transported the residue to disposal sites. In addition, CCC sold some of the liquid waste to salvagers and temporarily stored other waste in ten 5,000-gallon storage tanks or in drums. In the fall of 1977, there were approximately 13,000 drums of liquid waste on CCC’s premises. Capuano operated its own waste disposal facility known as Sanitary Landfill. That facility was located in Cranston, Rhode Island, not far from the Davis Site. In the spring of 1977, Capuano received complaints about odors emanating from its facility. Consequently, it began diverting and transporting to the Davis Site some of the waste that otherwise would have been dumped at Sanitary Landfill. William Davis oversaw all of the dumping. He determined what waste was accepted and where and how it was disposed of. Eleanor Davis performed bookkeeping services for the business; and the Davis’s two children, who resided with their parents on the premises adjacent to the Site, occasionally helped their father. When trucks arrived at the Site, William Davis prepared “receipts” on which he wrote the date, where the waste came from and the quantity of waste delivered. Usually, the driver making the delivery was required to sign the “receipt” and Davis directed him where to dump. Although Davis prepared “receipts” throughout the period that chemical wastes were dumped, he was unable to locate the receipts for deliveries made prior to January 10, 1977 or after July 7, 1977. Tanker trucks arriving at the Site emptied their contents into large pits in the ground. Some of the drums and smaller containers were filled with liquids and some of the drums contained liquids floating on top of solid and/or semi-solid substances. All of the liquids were poured into the pits. Most of the empty drums and containers were sold, and the remaining ones, including small laboratory vials and bottles, were buried elsewhere on the Site. Drums containing residues of solid and/or semi-solid substances that could not be poured out were piled at various locations on the Site. Some of them were buried in the course of extinguishing a fire that occurred in July of 1977. The liquid wastes dumped in the pits were allowed to percolate down into the soil. Many of them had distinctive physical characteristics. Some were red, blue or green, and some smelled like solvents. Occasionally, they caused suds to form in the small brook that ran through the Davis property. All of the drams containing solid and semisolid substances were delivered by Macera Disposal. Those substances consisted almost entirely of a brown, wax-like material that smelled like solvent. II. The Environmental Damage and the Remediation Plan Not surprisingly, the dumping at the Davis Site severely contaminated the soil, groundwater, and surface water and has caused the Site to be classified as a Superfund Site. The hazardous substances found at the Site may be grouped into three categories: volatile organic compounds (“VOC’s”), semi-volatile organic compounds (“SVOC’s”) and metals. A number of the VOC’s, including benzene, methyl ethyl ketone (MEK), methylene chloride, perchloroetheylene, a/k/a tetraehloroe-thylene (PCE), 1,1,1 trichloroethane (1,1,1— TCA), triehlorethylene (TCE), toluene, and xylene, have been detected in the soil, groundwater, and/or surface water at concentrations greater than two parts per million (ppm). Several metals, including cadmium, copper, cyanide, and nickel, also are present in the groundwater and surface water in concentrations well in excess of normal background levels. One or more of those hazardous substances was contained in the waste produced by each of the generator defendants during 1976 and 1977. Given the concentrations of those hazardous substances and the soil and subsurface conditions at the Site, action was required in order to mitigate the damage already done and to prevent further harm to the environment and to the health of nearby residents. Accordingly, the Environmental Protection Agency (the “EPA”) devised a remediation plan (the “Plan”) designed to do three things: (1) clean up the soil by reducing the concentration of hazardous wastes to acceptable levels; (2) clean up the groundwater at the Site; and (3) extend water supply pipelines to nearby residents whose wells were contaminated. The Plan was published and circulated for public comment pursuant to § 117 of CERCLA, 42 U.S.C. § 9617. Later, it was modified by an Explanation of Significant Differences (“ESD”) and was issued in final form as a Record of Decision (“ROD”). The estimated cost of implementing the Plan is $49 million. In addition, the United States has incurred enforcement costs of $6 million that, apparently, consist primarily of the expenses involved in litigating its claim against UTC. Thus, the total response costs are approximately $55 million. Under the terms of its settlement agreement with the government, UTC is obliged to pay $2.8 million in cash and has assumed responsibility for the soil remediation, which has an estimated cost of $14 million. See Davis, 11 F.Supp .2d at 191. Cleanup efforts began in July of 1997. Prior to that time, thirty-five drums labeled “Ferric Chloride” were removed from the Site. Since July of 1997, more than 1,000 drums and 10,000 jars, vials, and other small containers have been removed from the Site. Most of the drums were badly rusted, corroded and/or crushed. Approximately 800 of the drums were found in close proximity to one another in an area called “Drum Removal Area 1.” Four hundred and three of them were fifty-five-gallon drums containing a black or brown waxy substance. Analysis of representative samples of those drums revealed the presence of PCE, 1,1,1-TCA, .TCE, various hydrocarbon petroleum distillates (e.g., xylene, toluene, ethylbenzene), and alaphatic and pa-raffinic hydrocarbons, which are constituents of wax. Two of the drums bore a “Pratt & Whitney” label, two were labeled “Magnaf-lux” or “Zyglo Magnaflux,” one was labeled “Perm-a-chlor, Detrex Chemical,” one was labeled “Exxon,” and one was labeled “Chlo-rothene NU Dow Superior Solvent.” Twenty of the drums in Drum Removal Area 1 were green thirty-five-gallon drums labeled either “Kolene” or “Kolene Tufftride.” They contained cyanide and high concentrations of potassium and sodium. One fifty-five-gallon drum labeled “Ashland Chemical Co.,” “Danger,” and “Tetrahydra-furan” contained a mixture of solvents, including acetone, methylene chloride, toluene, and xylene, and phenolic compounds such as methylphenol and dimethylphenol. Several other drums bore the names of some of the settling contribution defendants (e.g., Olin, DuPont and Ferro) and contained substances such as “sticky white paste” or “clear watery liquid.” Still other drums were unlabeled and contained substances described as a “yellow-green gel” or “granular white chunks.” Two hundred of the drums removed as well as a large quantity of vials and jars were found either in an area known as “Drum Removal Area 2”' or scattered throughout the Site. Many of them had labels bearing the names of some of the settling defendants (e.g., “Olin,” “National Starch,” “Fisher Scientific” and “DuPont”) and contained a “clear watery liquid.” III. The Activities of the Transporters A. CWR CWR was located in Bridgeport, Connecticut and was owned and operated by Emanuel Musillo. It was the successor to Drum Automation, a Danbury, Connecticut company owned by Emanuel’s brother, Michael. In April of 1977, CWR purchased Drum Automation’s assets and moved the company, first to Stratford, Connecticut, and later to Bridgeport. CWR and Drum Automation collected chemical waste from 47 different companies in New Jersey and Connecticut, including ACCO-Bristol, Ashland, Gar, Instapak, and Perkin-Elmer. A small portion of the waste that CWR collected consisted of waste oil. After CWR moved to Bridgeport, it began selling some of that waste oil to salvagers. Most of the waste that CWR collected was transported to other locations for disposal. CWR’s method of collecting waste varied. Sometimes, its two drivers, Wilbert Jones and Johnny Granfield, loaded drums of liquid waste onto thirty or forty-foot flatbed trucks. On other occasions, the waste was collected in a tanker truck. The forty-foot flatbed accommodated seventy-nine fifty-five-gallon drums and was the only flatbed used to haul drums to Rhode Island. If a full load was collected early in the day, the drums, sometimes, would be taken directly to Sanitary Landfill. Usually, however, the truck would return to CWR, and the load of drums would be taken to Sanitary Landfill on the following day. If less than a full load was collected, the drums would be kept at CWR until seventy-nine drums had accumulated. Those drums then would be loaded onto the flatbed and driven to Sanitary Landfill. Drums were collected with such regularity that they never remained on CWR’s premises for more than three days. On eight to ten occasions, CWR drivers picked up flatbed trailers containing the full complement of seventy-nine drums from a parking lot in the Meadowlands of New Jersey and transported them directly to Sanitary Landfill. The source of those drums is unknown. Tanker pickups were less frequent and consisted primarily of loads of acid collected from Ash-land. During 1976 and 1977, all of CWR’s waste was taken, initially, to Sanitary Landfill. Sometime after April of 1977, Anthony and Jack Capuano, the owners of Sanitary Landfill, began diverting some of that waste to other sites in Rhode Island. During the period for which Davis has “receipts,” the Capuanos directed CWR drivers to the Davis Site on fifteen separate occasions. The “receipts” for those deliveries bear the name “Capuano” but are signed by CWR’s drivers. Those deliveries involved 1,185 drums containing 65,175 gallons of waste. There is no evidence that CWR made any deliveries to the Davis Site after July 7. Nor do the Davis “receipts” make any reference to any tanker truck deliveries made by CWR drivers. B. CCC CCC was located in Elizabeth, New Jersey, and was owned and operated by William Carracino. One of its more than 130 customers was Thiokol Corp. Like CWR, CCC sold some of the liquid waste that it collected to salvagers. Unlike CWR, it burned flammable liquids such as chlorinated solvents in an incinerator located on its premises. Nonflammable liquids, solids, sludges, and the residue from the incinerator were transported in fifty-five-gallon drums and five-gallon pails to offsite disposal facilities. Incineration reduced the volume of the waste collected, but because the process was very inefficient, it did not entirely eliminate the hazardous substances. Complete combustion required that the correct combination of temperature, time and turbulence be maintained for the volume of each hazardous substance injected into the incinerator. However, holes in the breaching section of the incinerator prevented enough air from being introduced to reach the temperatures required to incinerate some substances, and other substances often were introduced before the incinerator had been operating long enough to reach the required temperature. The incinerator also lacked a control needed to prevent the introduction of liquid waste from lowering the temperature below optimum levels. Furthermore, the waste was being burned at a rate of 900 to 1,000 gallons per hour even though the incinerator had a design capacity of only 300 gallons per hour. As a result, some of the hazardous substances were not destroyed and remained in the residue of sludge transported to disposal sites. Until July of 1976, CCC disposed of waste at the Kin-Buc landfill in New Jersey. In July, Kin-Buc was closed and CCC began stockpiling waste in 5,000 gallon storage tanks and fifty-five-gallon drums while it searched for other disposal sites. Early in 1977, approximately 10,000 drums were on CCC’s premises. By the fall of 1977, that number had grown to 20,000, but one-third of those drums were filled with water that was kept for fire prevention purposes. In the spring of 1977, CCC began sending its waste to disposal sites in Ohio and Rhode Island. Some of the waste also was hauled away by two individuals identified only as “Barry” and Marvin Jonas. CCC trucks taking the waste to Rhode Island were driven by John Mayo, Arnold Pritchett and Bill Cuff. At first, the waste that was sent to Rhode Island was deposited at Sanitary Landfill; but, starting in May of 1977, the Capuanos diverted all of it to the Davis Site. Davis’s testimony and CCC’s business records establish that CCC continued transporting waste to the Davis Site until early September when Davis refused to accept any more deliveries because CCC was delinquent in making payments. From May until the first week of July of 1977, CCC drivers made forty-seven trips to the Davis Site. On twenty-nine of those trips, a total of 2,125 fifty-five-gallon drums and 974 small five- and one-gallon pails were delivered. On the remaining eighteen trips, tanker trucks carrying 5,500 gallons of waste apiece were emptied. Thus, the total volume of waste delivered by CCC during that period was 220,725 gallons. Since those deliveries averaged 110,362 gallons per month, it is reasonable to infer that similar quantities were delivered in July and August, bringing the total amount delivered by CCC to 441,-450 gallons. C. Capuano The Capuanos delivered liquid waste to the Davis Site throughout the entire period that Davis was accepting that kind of waste. Davis’s “receipts” show that between January and July of 1977 those deliveries consisted of 59 tanker loads and 1,218 drums totaling 177,060 gallons of liquid waste. It is reasonable to infer that the deliveries they made during the last three months of 1976 and July and August of 1977 also averaged 29,510 gallons per month. Thus, the total amount of liquid waste delivered by the Ca-puanos was 324,610 gallons. D. Macera There is no evidence regarding the period of time over which Macera Brothers transported waste to the Davis Site. Nor are there any records establishing the quantity of waste that it delivered. However, Davis described the waste brought by Macera as a dark brown or black waxy substance that smelled like solvent and was contained in fifty-five-gallon drums. Moreover, Davis testified that Macera was the only transporter that delivered waste fitting that description. Most of the drums containing the waxy substance had a layer of liquid at the top. As already noted, the liquid was poured into pits and the drums containing the residue of solids and semi-solids were stockpiled at the Site. Four hundred and thirty-eight of those drums were found at the Site. It seems clear that the waste transported by Macera was generated by UTC. See Davis, 20 F.Supp.2d 326, 330-31, 1998 WL 682980. See also United States v. Davis, 882 F.Supp. 1217, 1224 (D.R.I.1995). Some of the drums bore labels with the name of Pratt & Whitney, a division of UTC. Other drums bore labels with the names of companies that were on Pratt & Whitney’s list of approved vendors. That fact is significant because Pratt & Whitney often put its waste in empty drums that it had on hand. In addition, the waxy substance found in the drums at the Site matched the description of waste generated by UTC, and chemical analysis revealed that it contained the same hazardous chemicals found in UTC’s waste stream. Thirty-five of the 438 drums containing the waxy substance were removed by EPA in 1985. The drum logs maintained by environmental consultants show that the other 403 drums still contained 10,164 gallons of waxy material, indicating that 12,000 gallons (i.e., approximately 54% of the original contents) either had been poured out at the time of delivery or had leaked out while the drums were stockpiled at the Site. It is reasonable to infer that 54% of the 35 drums previously removed by EPA also escaped, and, therefore, that a total of 13,040 gallons of waxy waste attributable to UTC found its way into the soil. There is evidence that Macera also may have delivered twenty drums labeled “Ko-lene” or “Kolene Tufftride” that contained cyanide, potassium and sodium. However, although UTC bought products from Kolene Corp. and generated a waste stream that contained cyanide, it treated its cyanide waste at its facility and did not send it off the premises for disposal. IV. The Activities of the Generators!"Arrangers” A. Thiokol (Morton) Thiokol was one of approximately 130 companies from which CCC collected waste during 1976 and 1977. Morton is Thiokol’s successor. The waste collected from Thiokol came from three plants located in Trenton, New Jersey that manufactured various urethanes, polysulfide rubbers and elastomers. Most of the waste consisted of spent solvents used in cleaning machinery and laboratory equipment. The spent solvents used in cleaning the machinery were collected in drums. The solvent waste from the laboratories was stored in “gallon sized safety cans” that had spring-loaded tops. The cans were red, rectangular in shape, and made of metal. Usually, when a can was filled, the spent solvents were poured into fifty-five-gallon drums for disposal, but on some occasions, the safety cans, themselves, were picked up by CCC. Thiokol was not the only company that used cans of that type. The solvent waste generated both in the laboratories and in the manufacturing portions of the plants contained, among other things, methylene chloride, methyl ethyl ke-tone (“MEK”), and Chlorothene NU, which apparently is a trade name for a form of 1,1,1-TCA purchased by Thiokol from Dow Chemical. All of those chemicals are VOC’s that were found at the Davis Site. Occasional batches of urethane, “filter cakes” used in manufacturing plasticizers, and small quantities of lubricating oil also were placed in drums for disposal. The urethane contained toluene diosocyanate (“TDI”), a/k/a benzene, see 40 C.F.R. § 302.4, and the filter cakes consisted primarily of diatomaeeous earth and calcium sulfate. CCC began collecting Thiokol’s waste in 1971 and collections averaged slightly more than 22,000 gallons per year. Some of the waste consisted of flammable solvents that probably were incinerated. The remainder most likely was transported offsite for disposal or stockpiled at the CCC facility for future disposal. There is no direct evidence establishing that Thiokol waste was deposited at the Davis Site. However, as already noted, CCC regularly had been collecting liquid waste from Thiokol since 1971 and it delivered 441,-450 gallons to the Davis Site. Since there is no reason to believe that CCC handled Thiokol’s waste any differently than the waste of its other 130 customers, it is reasonable to infer that some Thiokol waste was included in the waste transported by CCC to the Davis Site. That inference finds some support in the fact that CCC’s bills of lading reflect receipt of drums of Chlorothene NU during 1977 and its chemical equivalent, 1,1,1-TCA, was found at the Site. Unfortunately for UTC, there is no way to determine the amount of Thiokol waste that was transported because, among other things, the volume of waste that CCC received from its other customers is unknown. B. ACCO-Bristol ACCO-Bristol was a customer of CWR. It manufactured controls for oil and gasoline lines. Its manufacturing process involved electroplating, welding, and soldering. The electroplating operation required that metal parts be de-greased with chlorinated solvents, a process that produced a waste sludge containing 1,1,1-TCA. The de-greased parts were plated by being immersed in liquid baths through which an electric charge was sent. For cadmium plating, the bath was a solution containing a cadmium compound and cyanide. The baths used for copper and nickel plating contained copper and nickel compounds dissolved in hydrochloric or sulfuric acid. The soldering and welding operations produced a spent solution of soap and cyanide that was used to clean the parts after they were soldered or welded. The wastes generated by all three operations were placed in fifty-five-gallon drums for disposal. During the time that CWR was delivering waste to the Davis Site, it made only two pickups from ACCO-Bristol. On April 6 it picked up 50 fifty-five-gallon drums, and on June 28 it picked up 24 fifty-five-gallon drums. On the day following the June 28 pickup, CWR deposited seventy-nine drums at the Davis Site. Given CWR’s consistent practice of transporting drums to Rhode Island the morning after a full truckload had been accumulated, and given the fact that this invariably occurred within one to three days after pickup, it is reasonable to infer that ACCO-Bristol’s twenty-four drums containing 1,320 gallons of liquid waste were among the drums dumped on June 29. Conversely, since there are no “receipts” showing deliveries to the Davis Site within three days of the April 6 pickup, it must be inferred that the drums picked up on that day were deposited elsewhere. C. Ashland Ashland also was one of CWR’s customers. Ashland operated a chemical manufacturing plant in Great Meadows, New Jersey. Most of its waste consisted of spent nitrating acid — a mixture of 85% sulfuric acid, 4% nitric acid, and 11% water — that was hauled away in tanker trucks. The remaining waste consisted primarily of spent solvents and contained some used coveralls and gloves. The solvents most commonly used were iso-propyl alcohol, methyl alcohol, toluene, benzene, and xylene, and the waste water contained trace amounts of various unspecified chemicals. During May and June of 1977, CWR picked up thirteen tanker truckloads of spent nitrating acid and four flatbed truckloads containing 79 fifty-five-gallon drums. The drums were picked up on May 20, June 1, June 16 and June 30. It is reasonable to infer that the drums collected on June 1 and June 30 were deposited at the Davis Site. Davis’s receipts show that Willie Jones, one of CWR’s drivers, delivered seventy-nine drums on June 2. Because CWR had an established practice of bringing full loads back to its facility and transporting them to Rhode Island on the following day, it is likely that those drums were the seventy-nine drums collected from Ashland on June 1. Davis’s “receipts” also show that CWR delivered seventy-nine drums on Tuesday, July 5. Although that delivery was made four days after the June 30 pickup, the intervening Monday was a holiday on which CWR’s drivers presumably did not work. Consequently, it is likely that the drums delivered on July 5 were the same ones collected from Ashland on June 30. In contrast, there is no evidence linking the waste collected from Ashland on May 20 or June 16 to the Davis Site. Davis’s “receipts” do not reflect any deliveries by CWR within 3-4 days after those pickups. Nor are there any records indicating that CWR drivers made any tanker truck deliveries to the Site. On the contrary, all of the CWR “receipts” made out by Davis contain the notation “drums” or “barrels.” Accordingly, I find that 158 drums or 8,690 gallons of Ashland’s waste was deposited at the Davis Site. D. Gar Gar was another CWR customer. It was in the electroplating business and generated wastes containing nitric acid, copper, nickel and cyanide. During the time in 1977 that CWR was taking waste to the Davis Site, it picked up fifty-five-gallon drums of Gar’s waste on the following occasions: May 6 — 13 drums June 20 — 5 drums June 27 — 2 drums September 2 — 7 drums September 30 — 11 drums On June 21, the day following the five-drum pickup, CWR deposited sixty drums of waste at the Davis Site. There is no indication that CWR made any other trips to the Davis Site within 3-4 days after collecting drums from Gar. Since CWR almost always disposed of drums within three days after picking them up, it is reasonable to infer that the five drums received on June 20 were among the drums deposited at the Davis Site on June 21. On the other hand, the fact that there are no receipts evidencing CWR deliveries to the Davis Site within three days of the other pickups makes it unlikely that the remaining drums were deposited there. Accordingly, I find that 275 gallons of Gar’s waste were deposited at the Davis Site. E. Instapak Instapak, another CWR customer, was located in Danbury, Connecticut and manufactured polyurethane foam packaging. The foam was made by mixing two components referred to as Component A and Component B. Component A was a polymeric isocyanate that Instapak purchased from another company. Component B was a mixture of ten chemicals, including trichlorofluromethane that Instapak blended, itself. Instapak also manufactured the equipment used to blend the components. Customers who purchased or leased the equipment from Instapak could purchase the components in order to make their own foam. Instapak’s waste came from several sources. Some consisted of Components A and/or B that were returned by customers. Some consisted of a sludge called “stillbot-toms” that contained methylene chloride, a chemical used to clean refurbished dispensers. Both kinds of waste were placed in fifty-five-gallon drums for disposal. CWR picked up forty-five drums on May 17, 1977, and twenty-nine drums on June 10, 1977. Davis’s “receipts” show that the CWR deliveries that most closely follow those dates are May 27, ten days after the May 17 pickup, and June 21, eleven days after the June 10 pickup. UTC contends that, although those deliveries were well beyond CWR’s “three-day window,” it may be inferred that Instapak waste was deposited at the Davis Site because both Davis and Emanuel Musillo observed a “big doughboy” or “Styrofoam ball” being created when two liquids that they received were mixed together. However, under these circumstances, those observations do not support such an inference. Even if it is assumed, arguendo, that the phenomenon observed was caused by components A and B, there is no evidence to support the further inference that those components came from Instapak’s waste stream. As previously stated, Instapak sold Component A and Component B to its customers. Since those customers have not been identified, there is no way to determine whether they may have included any of the approximately twenty settling third and fourth-party defendants who were CWR customers or any other customers of CWR whose wastes may have been deposited at the Site. Nor is there any evidence regarding the quantity of Instapak waste that might have found its way to the Davis Site. Thus, even if the Instapak waste was dumped there, it would be impossible to calculate Instapak’s share of liability. In light of the aforementioned ten- to eleven-day gaps between collection of Instapak waste and deliveries to the Davis Site by CWR. as well as the very real possibility that the observed reaction was attributable to chemicals from other sources, the inference urged by UTC would amount to sheer speculation. Accordingly, I find that UTC has failed to prove that any hazardous waste attributable to Instapak was deposited at the Davis Site. F. Perkwr-Elmer Perkin-Elmer also was a CWR customer. It manufactured scientific instruments at a plant in Norwalk, Connecticut, and had two research and development facilities at 50 Danbury Road and 77 Danbury Road in Wilton, Connecticut. Perkin-Elmer also owns Qualitron, a manufacturer of printed circuit boards, located in Danbury, Connecticut. Perkin-Elmer’s Norwalk plant produced waste that contained cutting oil, spent solvents (including 1,1,1-TCA and toluene), still-bottoms containing toluene, paint sludge, hydrochloric acid, sulfuric acid, muriatic acid, and methylene chloride. The Wilton facilities generated acid wastes, and Qualitron’s waste contained ferric chloride, potassium ferrocyanide, and unspecified industrial solvents. All of those wastes were collected in a variety of containers ranging from fifty-five-gallon drums to five-gallon pails. During the time that CWR was taking wastes to the Davis Site, it made forty pickups from Perkin-Elmer. The only pickups that were made within three days before CWR delivered waste to the Davis Site were on the following dates in 1987: Date Location Quantity Gallons May 26 Perkin-Elmer 19 fifty-five gallon drums _(Norwalk)_1 fifteen gallon drum_1,060 June 20 Qualitron_13 fifty-five gallon drums_715 June 22 Perkin-Elmer 14 fifty-five gallon drums 770 _(Norwalk)_ June 22 Perkin-Elmer (50 5 fifty-five gallon drums Danbury Rd., Wilton) 1 thirty-gallon drum 4 fifteen-gallon drums _1 five-gallon container_370 June 22 Perkin-Elmer (77 8 fifty-five gallon drums Danbury Rd., Wilton) 3 fifteen-gallon drums _4 five-gallon containers_505 June 27_Qualitron_12 fifty-five gallon drums_660 July 1_Qualitron_13 fifty-five gallon drums_715 _TOTAL GALLONS: 4,795 Once again, based upon CWR’s established practice, it is reasonable to infer that those 4,795 gallons of waste were included in CWR’s deposits at the Davis Site on May 27 (seventy-nine drums), June 21 (sixty drums), June 23 (eighty drums), June 29 (seventy-nine drums) and July 5-7 (235 drums), respectively, but that the remaining wastes collected from Perkin-Elmer did not find their way to the Davis Site. Conclusions of Law I. Declaratory Judgment A. Appropriateness of Declaratory Judgment The premise underlying UTC’s request for a judgment “determining ... the equitable contribution share of liability for the site properly allocated to each [party]” is that, at some time in the future, it is likely that UTC will be required to pay more than its fan-share of the alleged common liability; and, therefore, that it will be entitled to contribution from the defendants. Unless a likelihood of entitlement to contribution is established, any judgment apportioning liability would amount to nothing more than an advisory opinion and this litigation would be “a needless waste of the Court’s time and the litigants’ resources.” Davis, 20 F.Supp.2d 326, 337-38, 1998 WL 682980. Once such a likelihood is demonstrated, an allocation of liability serves several purposes. First, it facilitates settlement among the parties by establishing their proportionate shares of future response costs. Thus, it enhances the possibility that the parties will be able to avoid the expenditure of time and money required to re-litigate the issue each time that new response costs are incurred. See Kelley v. E.I. DuPont de Nemours & Co., 17 F.3d 836, 845 (6th Cir.1994); Morrison Enter. v. McShares, Inc., 13 F.Supp.2d 1095, 1123 (D.Kan.1998); Boeing Co. v. Cascade Corp., 920 F.Supp. 1121, 1133 (D.Or. 1996). In addition, allocation helps to alleviate the hardship that would be visited upon the potentially responsible party (“PRP”) seeking contribution if that PRP was, in effect, required to finance the entire cleanup operation before getting a determination regarding the shares attributable to the other PRP’s. Of course, seeking allocation before the remediation process has progressed to a point that response costs and the relative responsibility of each party can be assessed accurately is not a practice that should be encouraged. Revelations that UTC had incurred no response costs prior to the close of discovery and that some relevant evidence was uncovered after that date bring this case perilously close to that situation. However, the evidence presented is sufficient to enable the Court to make a meaningful allocation based upon the facts presently available. The defendants argue that a declaratory judgment allocating liability is inappropriate for two reasons. First, they contend that CERCLA authorizes declaratory relief only for cost recovery actions brought pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 9607(a) and not for contribution actions brought pursuant to § 9613(f). They point out that the declaratory judgment provision is contained in § 9613(g)(2), which provides that: In any such action described in this subsection, the court shall enter a declaratory judgment on liability for response costs or damages that will be binding on any subsequent action or actions to recover further response costs or damages. (Emphasis added) Since subsection (g)(2) establishes a statute of limitations for “an initial action for recovery of the costs referred to in section 9607,” the defendants argue that it has no application to “contribution” actions referred to in § 9613(f) and for which the governing statute of limitations is found in § 9613(g)(3). However, there is a split of authority on this question. Some courts have held that the declaratory judgment provision applies only to cost recovery actions. See, e.g., Reichhold Chemicals, Inc. v. Textron, Inc., 888 F.Supp. 1116, 1124 (N.D.Fla.1995) (“by its explicit language, [§ 9613(g)(2) ] applies only to cost recovery actions” under § 9607). See also Sun Co. v. Browning-Ferris, Inc., 919 F.Supp. 1523, 1532 (N.D.Okla.1996), rev’d in pari on other grounds 124 F.3d 1187 (10th Cir.1997), cert. denied — U.S. -, 118 S.Ct. 1045, 140 L.Ed.2d 110 (1998). Other courts have held that, although § 9613(f) establishes the mechanism for seeking contribution, the right to contribution arises under § 9607, and, therefore, a contribution action is an action “referred to in § 9607.” See, e.g., Pinal Creek Group v. Newmont Mining Corp., 118 F.3d 1298, 1302 (9th Cir.1997); Morrison Enter., 13 F.Supp.2d at 1123 (“[Section 9613(f) ] did not create a new cause of action, nor did it create any new liabilities. It is no more than a mechanism for apportioning CERCLA-defined costs. Thus, of necessity, it must incorporate the liabilities set forth in [§ 9607(a) ] and ... a [§ 9613(f) ] action for contribution is an action under [§ 9607]”). The First Circuit has not addressed this precise issue but it has described a cost recovery action by an innocent party and a contribution action by a liable party as “separate and distinct.” See, United Technologies Corp. v. Browning-Ferris Indus., Inc., 33 F.3d 96, 98 (1st Cir.1994). In this case, it does not matter whether the declaratory judgment provision contained in § 9613(g)(2) applies only to cost recovery actions. If that provision’s use of the mandatory “shall” is construed to mean that a court is required to issue a declaratory judgment, limiting its application to cost recovery actions would not prohibit issuance of a declaratory judgment in a contribution action. Similarly, if the provision is viewed, merely, as permissive, its failure to expressly authorize declaratory judgments allocating contribution liability would not preclude such a remedy. Sun Co., 919 F.Supp. at 1532 (“[A] Court retains inherent authority, absent an express statutory command to the contrary, to fashion appropriate remedies in civil suits over which it has jurisdiction.”). Indeed, it is well established that a party seeking contribution under CERCLA may obtain declaratory relief under 28 U.S.C. § 2201, the Declaratory Judgment Act. See Boeing, 920 F.Supp. at 1133 (citing Wickland Oil Terminals v. Asarco, Inc., 792 F.2d 887, 893 (9th Cir.1986)); Sun Co., 919 F.Supp. at 1533. In this case, there is no question that the apportionment of liability among the litigants presents a real and substantial controversy between parties having adverse interests that satisfies the requirements of the Declaratory Judgment Act. The defendants also argue that, even if the Court has authority to issue a declaratory judgment, it should not do so here, because declaratory relief was not demanded in UTC’s pleadings. However, that argument rests on a faulty premise. As already noted, UTC’s complaint asks the Court to enter a judgment “determin[ing] ... the equitable contribution share of liability ... properly allocated to each [party].” Notice pleading does not require any magic words to describe the relief sought. It is sufficient that the complaint fairly apprises the defendants of the claim being made. Although UTC’s complaint could have been more explicit, it clearly conveys a demand for a judicial determination regarding each party’s “share of liability.” In addition, the Court’s case management order dated February 13, 1998, specifically identifies determination of the “equitable contribution share of liability for past and future response costs at the Site” as one of the matters to be determined at trial. B. Declaratory Judgment — Elements In order to obtain a declaratory judgment allocating liability for future response costs, UTC must establish: 1. That the defendants and UTC share a common liability for the future response costs (i.e., that they are jointly and severally liable for those costs); 2. The percentage or pro rata share of the common liability that is attributable to each defendant; and 3. A reasonable likelihood that UTC will be required to pay more than its pro rata or fair share of the common liability. Davis, 20 F.Supp.2d 326, at 331-33, 1998 WL 682980 (citations omitted). See also Boeing, 920 F.Supp. at 1140. II. The Defendants’ Common Liability In order to establish that a defendant shares liability for future response costs, UTC must prove that: 1. The Davis Site is a “facility;” 2. There was an actual or threatened “release” of a “hazardous substance” from the Site; 3. The release or threatened release resulted in or will result in “response costs” being incurred; and 4. The defendant is within one of the four categories of liable parties described in 42 U.S.C. § 9607(a)(l)(4). Davis, 20 F.Supp.2d 326, 332-33, 1998 WL 682980 (citing In re Hemingway Transport, Inc., 993 F.2d 915, 931 (1st Cir.1993); Dedham Water Co. v. Cumberland Farms Dairy, Inc., 889 F.2d 1146, 1150 (1st Cir.1989); Davis, 882 F.Supp. at 1220.). In this case, there is no question that the first three elements have been proven. CERCLA defines a “facility” as “ay site or area where a hazardous substance has been deposited, stored, disposed of, or placed, or otherwise come to be located....” 42 U.S.C. § 9601(9)(B). As already noted, a number of hazardous substances were found in containers, the soil and/or the groundwater at the Davis Site. Nor is there any question that those hazardous substances were “released” within the meaning of 42 U.S.C. § 9601(22). That subsection defines a “release” as “any spilling, leaking, pumping, pouring, emitting, emptying, discharging, injecting, escaping, leaching, dumping, or disposing into the environment (including the abandonment or discarding of barrels, containers, and other closed receptacles containing any hazardous substance or pollutant or contaminant).” Here, large volumes of liquid wastes containing hazardous substances were poured or leaked onto the ground and leached into the soil and barrels and other containers containing solid and semi-solid hazardous substances were abandoned and/or buried at the Site. Finally, it is clear that the release and threatened release of those hazardous substances has required and will continue to require response costs to be incurred. “Response costs” include both “removal” activity and “remedial” activity. 42 U.S.C. § 9601(23). Davis, 882 F.Supp. at 1220 n. 5. Removal activity encompasses “the cleanup or removal of released hazardous substances from the environment,” and “remedial” activity extends to actions that “prevent or minimize the release of hazardous substances so that they do not migrate to cause substantial danger to present or future public health or welfare or the environment.” Id. Here, EPA’s three-pronged cleanup plan includes both kinds of activity. The only issue is whether the defendants are liable for those response costs on the grounds that they either operated the facility, transported the hazardous substances to the site, or arranged for the hazardous substances to be disposed of at the Site. A. Owner/Operator Liability CERCLA imposes liability on “the owner and operator of ... a facility” and on “any person who at the time of disposal of any hazardous substance owned or operated any facility at which such hazardous substances were disposed of....” 42 U.S.C. §§ 9607(a)(1) & (2). In this case, it is undisputed that William Davis operated the Site. He determined who was allowed to dump waste, what could be dumped, and the manner in which it was dumped. Although Eleanor Davis provided bookkeeping services and the Davis children occasionally assisted their father, none of them participated to the extent or exercised the degree of control that would justify classifying them as operators. However, Eleanor Davis as a co-owner of the property is deemed an owner of the facility. Id. Accordingly, William Davis is liable as an operator, and he and Eleanor Davis share liability as owners. B. Transporter Liability CERCLA imposes transporter liability on “any person who accepts or accepted any hazardous substances for transport to disposal treatment facilities, incinerations vessels or sites selected by such person....” 42 U.S.C. § 9607(a)(4). In this case, there is no question that CCC, CWR, and the Capuano defendants transported hazardous waste to the Davis Site. Since UTC has asserted transporter liability claims against them and against William Car-racino and Emanuel Musillo, the respective principals of CCC and CWR, and since all of them have been defaulted, they all are liable as transporters. On the other hand, the claims against Drum Automation and Michael Musillo, its owner, should be dismissed because there is no evidence that Drum Automation transported any waste to the Davis Site. Furthermore, Macera previously was found not hable as a transporter. Davis, 20 F.Supp.2d 326 at 334-35, 1998 WL 682980 (granting Macera’s motion for summary judgment). C.Arranger or Generator Liability CERCLA imposes arranger liability on “any person who by contract, agreement, or otherwise arranged for disposal or treatment, or arranged with a transporter for transport for disposal or treatment, of hazardous substances owned or possessed by such person, by any other party or entity, at any facility or incineration vessel owned or operated by another party or entity and containing such hazardous substances.” 42 U.S.C. § 9607(a)(3). In order to establish that a defendant was an “arranger,” UTC must prove that: 1. The defendant arranged for a hazardous substance to be transported to or disposed of at the Davis Site; 2. There was a release or threatened release of that kind of hazardous substance; and 3. The release or threatened release triggered response costs (i.e., caused response costs'to be incurred). Davis, 20 F.Supp.2d 326, at 336, 1998 WL 682980 (citations omitted). In the context of this case, proof that a defendant generator’s hazardous waste “can be located and identified at the Davis Site” is a sine qua non in establishing arranger liability. United States v. Davis, 882 F.Supp. 1217, 1221 (D.R.I.1995). UTC asserts that, when a generator’s waste is shipped to a third party and loses its identity by being co-mingled with other wastes and the co-mingled waste then is deposited at a CERCLA site where wastes similar to the wastes produced by the generator are found, the burden shifts to the generator to show that its wastes were not among those deposited. In the case of Thiokol, it may be reasonable to infer that some of its waste ended up at the Davis Site because Thiokol waste was collected by CCC and apparently was co-mingled with other waste, CCC delivered wastes to the Davis Site, and wastes similar to those generated by Thiokol were found at the Davis Site. However, there is no evidence that wastes produced by any of the other generator defendants were commingled with other wastes and, then, deposited at the Davis Site. On the contrary, the uncontradicted evidence is that the generator defendants’ wastes never lost their identities because they were transported to the Davis Site in the same containers in which they were collected by CWR and the sources of those containers can be identified by comparing the records of CWR’s pickups with Davis’s receipts. Nevertheless, as previously stated, the evidence does establish hazardous substances produced by ACCO-Bristol, Ashland, Gar, and Perkin-Elmer as well as Morton were deposited at the Davis Site, that each of them contracted for the disposal and that the release and threatened release of those kinds of substances triggered response costs. Accordingly, those generator defendants are “arrangers” under CERCLA. By contrast, the evidence does not support a finding that Instapak’s waste was deposited at the Davis Site. Consequently, UTC has failed to prove that Instapak is an “arranger.” III. The Fair or Pro Rata Share of Each Party A. Right to Contribution The alleged right to contribution upon which UTC’s entitlement to a judgment allocating liability rests is governed by § 9613(f) which permits contribution from any party that may be liable under § 9607(a) and provides that: In resolving contribution claims, the court may allocate response costs among liable parties using such equitable factors as the court determines are appropriate. In providing for “contribution,” Congress “fully intended courts to give the words their customary meaning.” United Technologies, 33 F.3d at 101. It is well established that, for purposes of § 9613(f), “contribution” refers to the right of “a responsible party to recover from another responsible party that portion of its costs that are in excess of its pro rata share of the aggregate response costs.” Id. at 103. It is equally well established that a defendant’s liability for contribution is “several” rather than “joint and several.” Pinal Creek, 118 F.3d at 1303. Thus, each defendant is responsible only for its equitable share of the response costs. Centerior Serv. Co. v. Acme Scrap Iron & Metal Corp., 153 F.3d 344, 348 (6th Cir.1998); United States v. Kramer, 953 F.Supp. 592, 600 (D.N.J.1997). In this respect, contribution liability under § 9613(f) differs from the liability imposed in a cost recovery action under § 9607, where one liable defendant may be required to pay the entire cost. See Centerior, 153 F.3d at 348. However, that does not mean that recovery under § 9613(f) is strictly limited to a proportionate share of the cost that precisely corresponds to the pro rata share of harm directly caused by each defendant. In calculating a defendant’s equitable share of response costs, a court “enjoys broad discretion to consider and apply such equitable factors as it deems appropriate to achieve a just and fail* allocation among liable parties.” Browning-Ferris v. Ter Maat, 13 F.Supp.2d 756, 773 (N.D.Ill.1998); Kramer, 953 F.Supp. at 597; 42 U.S.C. § 9613(f)(1) Moreover, the fair share allocated to a defendant may include a portion of the liability attributed to “orphan shares,” which refer to harm attributable to insolvent or unknown PRP’s. Kramer, 953 F.Supp. at 598 (“[N]othing in the statute precludes a court from finding that equity demands that response costs refer to an ‘orphan share’ be borne by ‘liable parties’ that are third party defendants”); Pinal Creek, 118 F.3d at 1303. In any event, since contribution liability is several, the party seeking contribution has the burden of proving both that a defendant shares in the common liability and what that share is. B. Allocating Liability 1.The Equitable Factors Courts have considered a potpourri of factors in equitably allocating CERCLA response costs among liable parties. Many courts have applied the so-called “Gore factors” that were enumerated in a bill sponsored by then-Congressman Albert Gore but never enacted. Those factors are: the ability of the parties to demonstrate that their contribution to the site can be distinguished; the amount of hazardous waste involved; the degree of toxicity of the hazardous waste involved; the degree of involvement by the parties in the generation, transportation, treatment, storage or disposal of the hazardous waste; the degree of care exercised by the parties with respect to the hazardous waste concerned, taking into account the characteristic of such waste; and the degree of cooperation by the parties with federal, state or local officials to prevent any harm to the public health or the environment. H.R. 7020, 126 Cong.Rec. 26,779, 26,781 (1980). See, e.g., Ekotek Site PRP Comm. v. Self, 1 F.Supp.2d 1282, 1293 (D.Utah 1998); Boeing, 920 F.Supp. at 1132; Akzo Coatings, Inc. v. Aigner Corp., 909 F.Supp. 1154, 1162 n. 3 (N.D.Ind.1995); Central Me. Power Co. v. F.J. O’Connor Co., 838 F.Supp. 641, 645 (D.Me.1993). That list is not exhaustive. Other factors commonly taken into account are: the financial resources of the liable parties; the extent of the benefit that the parties received from the hazardous waste disposal practices; the extent of the parties’ knowledge and awareness of the environmental contamination of the site; the efforts made, if any, to prevent environmental harm and the efforts made to settle the case. See id; United States v. Atlas Minerals & Chem., Inc., C.A. No. 91-5118, 1995 WL 510304, at *86 (E.D.Pa. Aug.22, 1995). Because the factors to be considered are both numerous and difficult to quantify, allocation cannot be made with mathematical precision. One court has compared the allocation process to “Kentucky windage.” Ter Maat, 13 F.Supp.2d at 781. As the Ter Maat court aptly put it, a court is required to “[u]nravel a 20-year process involving millions of cubic yards of waste and complex ecological, biological and geological forces” and “to assess fault on a ‘sliding scale’ that makes unacceptable methods that may have been acceptable when they were employed.” Ter Maat, 13 F.Supp.2d at 777. In a nutshell, allocation is a highly fact-intensive process that depends upon the particular circumstances of each case. See Environmental Trans. Systems, Inc. v. ENSCO, Inc., 969 F.2d 503, 509 (7th Cir. 1992) (“[I]n any given case, a court may consider several factors, a few factors, or only one determining factor ... depending on the totality of the circumstances presented to the court.”). The critical factors may be grouped into four categories: 1. The extent to which cleanup costs are attributable to wastes for which a party is responsible. 2. The party’s level of culpability. 3. The degree to which the party benefit-ted from disposal of the waste. 4. The party’s ability to pay its share of the cost. 2. Per Capita Approach UTC argues that liability should be allocated per capita among all defendants that are. responsible for any hazardous wastes found at the Davis Site unless there is evidence indicating that a different allocation is appropriate. This Court rejects that argument for a variety of reasons. First, a per capita approach might have some merit in cases where the quantity of waste attributable to each PRP is roughly the same and all of the PRP’s are parties. However, in this case, neither of those conditions is satisfied. Here, the amount of hazardous waste attributable to each party varies greatly, and allocating liability on a per capita basis would result in shares that are grossly disproportionate to the defendants’ relative degrees of responsibility. The suggestion that disproportionate liability can be avoided by permitting the defendants to establish that adjustments should be made to per capita liability unjustifiably shifts the burden of proof from the plaintiff, as the party seeking contribution, to the defendants. Such burden-shifting may be appropriate where the pertinent evidence is solely in the possession of the defendant. However, this is not one of those cases, at least insofar as the generator defendants are concerned. There is no indication that the generator defendants had any greater access than did UTC to evidence regarding the waste deposited at the Davis Site. That evidence was almost entirely in the possession of Davis and the transporters. Moreover, the inequity of a per capita allocation would be compounded by the fact that the remaining defendants appear to be only a few of the companies responsible for hazardous waste found at the Davis Site. Equitable allocation calls for liability to be apportioned among all responsible parties. Here, neither the four original defendants that settled with the United States nor the 49 third- and fourth-party defendants that have settled with UTC are parties to the allocation phase of the case. UTC urges that the shares of the absent PRP’s should be treated as orphan shares and allocated among these defendants. That would result in these contribution defendants being held liable for the harm caused by, at least, 54 other PRP’s who are both solvent and known. It also would result in the kind of double recovery expressly prohibited by § 9614(b) by allowing UTC to recover a portion of the costs for which it already has been or will be compensated under the terms of the settlement agreements. There is nothing “equitable” about that kind of an allocation. UTC’s reliance upon Acushnet Co. v. Coaters, Inc., 972 F.Supp. 41 (D.Mass.1997), as authority for making a per capita allocation is misplaced. In Acushnet, Judge Keeton merely noted that “one way” of allocating shares in a hazardous waste case when the parties are unable to prove exact or approximate fair shares “is to start with a presumption that, once a party is found to be liable, that party is to be assigned an equal share,” a presumption that is “rebuttable by credible evidence sufficient” to adjust that party’s share up or down. Id. at 63 (emphasis added). However, Judge Keeton, himself, eschewed this approach and instead allocated each defendant’s fair share of cleanup costs by simply “weighing all the relevant factors.” Id. at 71-72 (“I find that I am able to make findings reasoned from all this evidence that are far more likely to be consistent with the truth about the nature and extent of each contributor’s actions and resulting needs for remediation at the ... sites than would be shares of responsibility determined on a per capita basis or on an all-or-none basis.”). 3. Application of Equitable Factors (a) Waste Attributable to Each Party In this case, the dominant factor in determining each party’s equitable share of liability is the extent to which the response costs are attributable to waste for which that party is directly responsible. Since the hazardous waste deposited at the Davis Site has been commingled into an essentially homogeneous “witches’ brew,” it is impossible to allocate discrete portions of the cleanup cost to any particular type of waste or any particular party. Consequently, the fairest, and most practical, measure of relative responsibility is the quantity or volume of hazardous waste attributable to each party. In the case of Thiokol (i.e., Morton), there is no way to calculate the volume of its waste that may have been deposited at the Davis Site. As previously stated, the conclusion that Thiokol’s waste found its way to the Davis Site rests on the premise that, because Thiokol was one of CCC’s customers, some of its waste probably was included in the waste delivered by CCC. However, there is no evidence establishing the percentage of waste collected by CCC that was deposited at the Davis Site. Nor is there any evidence establishing the percentage of waste collected by CCC that came from Thiokol rather than from CCC’s approximately 130 other customers. Without that information, any attempt to calculate the percentage of waste deposited by CCC that is attributable to Thiokol would be sheer speculation. Therefore, no allocation of responsibility can be made to Morton. Allocating responsibility among the remaining defendants on the basis of volume is a two-step process. First, since a contribution defendant ordinarily is liable only for the portion of the harm that it caused, a determination must be made regarding the volume of waste attributable to each defendant. Next, to the extent that responsibility for a particular quantity of waste is shared by more than one party, the shared responsibility must be apportioned among them in accordance with the remaining equitable factors. The Davises, for example, are responsible for the total volume of waste dumped at the Site. By the same token, each of the transporters is responsible for that portion of the total volume that the transporter brought to the Site and each generator defendant is responsible for that portion of the total volume that the generator produced. In order to determine how the shared responsibility should be apportioned and to allocate liability among the parties, consideration must be given to the remaining equitable factors. (b) Level of culpability There are a variety of considerations that bear upon a responsible party’s level of culpability under CERCLA. They include the extent of that party’s responsibility for proper disposition of the waste, its awareness of the potential harm, the degree of care it exercised in order to avert the harm and its willingness to accept responsibility for remediating th