BISMARCK, N.D.(AP) - A Florida man being sued by the federal government over chemical contamination at a former dry cleaning site in West Fargo says he is not responsible for the $5 million cleanup cost.

John Woodhams, of Naples, Fla., says in court documents that he does not have the money and should not be held liable regardless. He is asking a federal judge to dismiss the case brought by the Justice Department on behalf of the Environmental Protection Agency.

"EPA has been negligent in its efforts to recover the remediation costs from the company that operated the site and was the actual cause of the improper disposal and discharge of chemicals on that site," Woodhams' attorney, William Delmore, said in a response to the lawsuit filed against Woodhams in U.S. District Court in Fargo.

A company that once ran the dry-cleaning business is paying some money to the EPA, though the amount might be as little as $350,000.

The government says the contaminated site was owned by Woodhams from at least 1976 until August 1995, when he transferred ownership to a trust he controls.

"On numerous occasions from approximately 1977 until approximately 1996, PCE was disposed on the site," the lawsuit says.

PCE is the acronym for a dry cleaning chemical that has been linked to liver and kidney damage. More than 5,100 pounds of the chemical were removed from the soil and shallow groundwater at the West Fargo site, according to the EPA.

The contamination was discovered in 1998. The EPA in February 2005 contracted with a company to clean up the chemical. The job was completed a year later.

Woodhams sold the dry cleaning business in the mid-1980s but retained ownership of the property, according to the EPA. The lawsuit says Woodhams still is liable as the owner of the site when it became contaminated.

The response filed by Delmore says Woodhams cooperated with government officials and contributed $350,000 toward cleaning up the site, including removing the building. It says Woodhams also hired an environmental consultant who came up with a cleanup plan that was more cost-effective than the EPA plan but it was dismissed by the state and the EPA "with no review."

In September 2001, the West Fargo City Commission voted to support the Health Department's rejection of the plan, which one commissioner called "a piece of garbage."

Delmore says in court documents that the EPA's cleanup efforts did not comply with its plan, but he does not elaborate. Neither he nor Woodhams responded to requests for comment Thursday.

National Dry Cleaners, one of the former operators at the West Fargo site, is making payments to help with the cleanup costs, under an agreement reached with the EPA in 2005. The company will pay up to $1.3 million, depending on its ability to refinance debt. The agreement does not become final until next year. Whatever the company pays will be deducted from the amount sought from Woodhams.