According to the Attorney General, the gas station owners removed seven underground storage tanks from the property in December 1988. The state conducted an inspection at the time and found that petroleum had been released into the surrounding land and water. Whether the leak had occurred during the tank removal or before it was unclear, but the company failed to take the necessary corrective actions and filed deficient reports to the state.

Because the company failed to clean the contaminated site, it could have compromised the health and safety of the residents in this small north central Ohio community.

“For two decades the defendants in this case have refused to fully investigate and correct the problems on this site caused by the release of petroleum,” Cordray said. “This agreement takes the much-needed step forward toward resolving the environmental problems and protecting the health of nearby residents.”

Englefield Oil Co., the parent company of the Waldo Duchess station, refused full responsibility in the matter. “The principle activities resulting in the lawsuit occurred more than a decade ago and relate to the allegedly late or deficient submission of reports by our consultants,” Englefield spokesman Terry Swartz told the Convenience Store / Petroleum News.

“This property was acquired with the environmental issues unknown at the time of the purchase. Englefield Oil and its consultant do not believe the site at issue has caused any off-site environmental concern,” Swarz said.

Englefield Oil operates more than 150 locations containing underground storage tanks. Swarz said that the company “has always taken its environmental responsibility seriously and regrets that this action has occurred.”

SOURCE: Leaking Underground Storage Tanks › Ohio company penalized for 20-year-old gas leak

The November incident occurred when oil waste from a Childers Oil facility permeated the Kentucky River just one mile upstream from the city’s water plant. Then, in February, massive amounts of diesel fuel were released from numerous storage tanks belonging to Childers. The diesel leak exposed area residents to contaminated water for a 10-day period, during which time the city could only warn them not to cook, drink, or bathe in the water.

The state’s Energy and Environment Cabinet filed a lawsuit against Childers Oil and a related company, Mountain Rail Properties. Both companies are owned by the same family. The attorneys have also asked the Franklin, Kentucky, Circuit Judge to issue an injunction that would bar Childers Oil from allowing any future petroleum leaks. A violation of the injunction would lead to the company being held in contempt of court.

“It is the personal right of the citizens of Letcher County to live in a safe environment and to have clean drinking water,” state attorneys were quoted as saying in the CSNews Online report.

Many area residents remain suspicious of the oil company after its record of environmental violations was released. According to Lexington Herald-Leader, the company’s violations include “improperly burning debris; improperly dumping construction waste, including construction debris; leaking or improperly registered and upgraded underground fuel storage tanks; sewage station overflow; and not filing correct monitoring reports.”

According to CSNews Online, an employee of Childers told a state inspector in one of the earlier cases that the company owner, Don Childers, instructed him to burn various waste materials with ‘used motor oil from the shop’ behind the Wal-Mart in Whitesburg. Childers told the employee not to make a big fire, and that he would run over the site with a bulldozer later.

The company’s owners, however, say that they are cooperating with the state and that litigation isn’t necessary. They also say they love their city and are proud to serve it.

Ironically, Childers Oil is sponsoring an event called “River Sweep 2009,” an environmental event held by the Ohio River Valley Water Sanitation Commission to clean up area riverbanks.

SOURCE: Leaking Underground Storage Tanks › Kentucky oil company repeatedly damages environment, sued by state

None of the plaintiffs have appeared in court since the case opened in April of 1999. Montgomery County judge Maurino Rossanese Jr. bifurcated their civil lawsuit, preventing the plaintiffs from appearing before a single jury. An attorney for the plaintiffs has appealed the judge’s decision to split up the case, but the appeal has not been ruled on.

“Justice delayed is justice denied,” Christine Fisher, one of the plaintiffs, told The Times Herald. She described her experience a “nightmare.” Fisher and her husband were using the contaminated water, which smelled and tasted like normal water, for everything from drinking and cooking to bathing and swimming. Fisher’s husband grew seriously ill and nearly died. Their horse, goat, and two cats weren’t as fortunate. The animals had been drinking from a contaminated pond and died from poisoning.

The contamination occurred after the owner of the Gulf station installed underground storage tanks. Manufacturer defects allowed fuel to leak through the tank lines, and the leak detection system on the tanks malfunctioned. Estimates on the amount of fuel that leaked before the problem was discovered range from 12,000 gallons to 50,000 gallons. The leakage was so severe that fuel collected in a well across the street caused the well house to explode.

In addition to the lingering health problems many residents of Blue Bell face, residents also worry that their homes and property have become almost worthless. Many communities once affected by an environmental disaster carry a stigma long after the land has been cleaned.

“You can’t sell a house here now,” Fisher told The Times Herald.

Plaintiffs staged a protest outside the Montgomery County Courthouse Monday in an effort to bring attention to the unsettled cases.

SOURCE: Leaking Underground Storage Tanks › Penn community seeks justice years after massive fuel leak

Beasley Allen

In August of 2007, Taylor and her husband noticed the strong odor of gasoline on their property, accompanied by a petroleum sheen on the surface water that had accumulated on the property. They contacted the Alabama Department of Environmental Management (ADEM) for assistance. ADEM sent an environmental contractor to Taylor’s property to install monitoring wells and collect soil and water samples.

The testing revealed that fuel from the Speedmart’s tanks had been released, extensively contaminating the plaintiff’s soil, surface water, and groundwater with a number of highly toxic chemicals. Levels of the chemicals benzene and MTBE exceeded the maximum contaminant level in the collected samples.

The lawsuit alleges that the Speedmart’s leaking UST caused substantial and permanent loss of value to Taylor’s property. According to the suit, the defendants were responsible in making sure their fuel tanks were leak-proof, which they failed to do in 2007 and previously in June of 1998. The lawsuit charges Chatham Oil with negligence, wantonness, trespass, nuisance, and strict liability in failing their duty to properly maintain and inspect the USTs.

The removal and cleanup of leaking underground storage tanks is a main initiative of the Environmental Protection Agency, which recently received $200 million in federal stimulus money to allocate amongst states, territories, and Indian land for UST inspection and cleanup.

The U.S. has hundreds of thousands of USTs beneath its cities, towns, and suburbs. A hole the size of a pinhead will allow as much as 400 gallons of fuel to leak through the walls of a UST in just one year, contaminating 400 million gallons of fresh water.

Read the complaint.

SOURCE: Leaking Underground Storage Tanks › Alabama woman sues oil company over land contaminated by leaky UST

“TravelCenters of America has knowingly and repeatedly disregarded California’s underground fuel storage laws for years,” attorney General Edmund G. Brown Jr. told the Central Valley Business Times.

According to the CVBT, Riverside, California, District Attorney Rod Pacheco filed a similar suit against TravelCenters in July of last year, alleging the company violated multiple state regulations governing the possession of underground storage tanks, which almost always store fuel and other hazardous substances. Whereas the Riverside lawsuit focused on TravelCenters in that county, the latest lawsuit names TravelCenter’s facilities statewide.

Responding to the Riverside County lawsuit last year, TravelCenters called the laws unconstitutional. The company also claimed that federal laws pre-empted California’s laws, and that the state’s regulations violate due process.

According to the CVBT, the Riverside Department of Environmental Health periodically inspected USTs at the TravelCenters facility in Riverside County over a number of years. The officials found numerous violations of California’s underground storage tank laws, yet the company ignored repeated warnings to fix most of the problems.

California has some of the strictest environmental protection standards in the country, which often exceed those established by the federal government. While critics say that California’s laws are too tough on big business, the truth is that stricter regulations compel the automotive, fuel, and other industries to develop better, cleaner technology. Where regulations are too lax, manufacturers often land in court defending their products while people become harmed or killed.

Legal defeats can be extremely costly for defendants, especially if punitive damages are imposed. But money talks. Those costly penalties ultimately persuade big corporations to boost their own standards, which may involve implementing simple and inexpensive modifications or investing in developing entirely new and innovative technologies. As technology evolves and products improve,  the earth benefits. People benefit.

Instead of complying with the same state laws to which other gas stations adhere, TravelCenters now faces paying “the statutory maximum of $25,000 in civil penalties for each day of each violation, which could amount to millions of dollars in penalties,” the CVBT report says.

SOURCE: Leaking Underground Storage Tanks › California sues truck stop chain for UST violations

“The fumes were so bad I got a headache after visiting for 30 minutes,” Wray’s attorney told the Muncie Star Press.

The Star Press reports that 6,300 LUST sites have been cleaned up statewide since 1988. Barry Sneed, a spokesman for the Indiana Department of Environmental Management (IDEM), told the paper that the LUST section of his agency is in the process of addressing some 2,400 additional sites where leaking tanks are believed to be contaminating the surrounding land and water. He also said that IDEM receives roughly 200 reports of new leaks and spills every year.

IDEM’s cleanup plan for the area near Wray’s home calls for the removal of 3,220 tons of fuel-contaminated soil.

Sneed told the Star Press that IDEM has not taken any punitive action against the owners of the affected property. He said the responsible party is cooperating fully to assist authorities in the evaluation and cleanup. The owners are also submitting remediation plans for IDEM’s review.

Nearly half a million underground tanks throughout the United States have had confirmed leaks, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. Many have been cleaned up, but more than 100,000 of the known LUSTs are awaiting removal and cleanup.

A vaporous gasoline odor in the basement of your home is often a telltale sign that your property might be contaminated by a LUST.

SOURCE: Leaking Underground Storage Tanks › Indiana man sues after leaking fuel tank forces him out of house