By the literal terms of §107 of the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA),¹ the states may be held strictly liable for costs incurred by private parties in responding to hazardous pollution incidents traceable to state-owned facilities. In United States v. Union Gas Co.,² however, a federal district court recently held that private-party liability suits against the states are barred by the Eleventh Amendment. If other courts follow Union Gas, the states will be immune from cost recovery actions even though the states are "potentially responsible parties" at some of the nation's most notorious hazardous waste disposal sites.³ Congress did not intend such a result, and an analysis of CERCLA shows that Eleventh Amendment sovereign immunity should not be a defense to a §107 suit.