&gt; I talked to a lawyer, who didn&#x27;t think we&#x27;d be likely to succeed if we tried to get the insurance company to pay anyway. They did think whoever owned the house at the time of the spill would be liable, but it would be hard to prove that the spill happened at a certain time and they may not have the money.<p>Right from the article. Sounds like there have been multiple owners, no way to assign blame. Last owner probably can&#x27;t be fined for something they had no knowledge of.