My 88 year old father is being sued for water contamination of a dry cleaners he operated more than 32 years ago.

I am only licensed to practice law in the State of Ohio, so I cannot provide a definitive answer about your California issue.  However, because much of the environmental law practice is based on the federal laws and regulations...sometimes implemented by the states, I can provide the following general comments based on my 22 years of environmental law practice. First of all, is USEPA or Cal/EPA the lead agency in your matter?  If it is USEPA, I suggest that you review the USEPA's guidance document on "Ability to Pay." http://www.epa.gov/compliance/resources/policies/cleanup/superfund/genpol-atp-rpt.pdf Generally speaking, USEPA is not interest in taking an older person's home or social security income to pay for remediation costs at an old site.  On the other hand, they don't like the idea of people passing on significant wealth to family instead of using it to clean up sites contaminated by the person's former business.  My suggestion is to contact USEPA (or Cal/EPA) to obtain the required forms to show that your father does not have "the ability to pay" for the cleanup.  That may involve submitting 5 years of tax returns. You may be able to help your father file the required paperwork without an attorney. Good luck. Daniel A. Brown, Esq. - Brown Law Office LLC, Dayton, Ohio