Gas Station Contamination Leads to Demolition

By: Duane Craig

More than a dozen homes near Loch Raven Village, Md., are slated for demolition in the wake of petroleum contamination that first came to light back in 1987, according to the Essex-Middle River Patch. Apparently, a Hess gas station leaked gasoline that drained downhill, collected in the ground water and beneath homes where it caused vapor intrusion problems. The company settled with 17 of the property owners, however the details of the settlement weren’t released to the public.

One resident, however, who did not receive a buyout settlement, claims he still deals with an oil-covered sump pump in his basement and fumes down there that make it impossible to use the space for washing clothes. He said his property was excluded from the settlement because it was five feet outside the borders of the settlement area.

Previously, Hess had installed a system that removed the gasoline, and that treated the ground water beneath the homes. A separate system was also put into operation to deal with the soil vapors. Apparently though, those systems were either ineffective or more costly when compared with simply buying out the owners and demolishing the buildings. The system removing the gasoline and treating the ground water had been shut down in 2010.

Texas Residents Blame Oil Producer for Mysterious Illnesses

By: Duane Craig

“Respiratory problems, stomach issues, heart issues, fatigue and aches and pains” top residents lists of ailments in the Cherry Creek subdivision in Shepherd, Texas, according to this Eastex Advocate article. One resident even claims to be waking up at night with chest pains and vomiting. Residents claim an oil producer nearby, Famcor, is the source of air pollution, or other contamination, that is making them sick.

The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality was on the case looking for air quality issues while the Texas Railroad Commission, which is supposed to handle investigations into soil and water contamination, had been elusive about answering questions related to their activities in the case -- at least at the time the article referenced above was published. One resident claimed to be told by an official of the agency that it didn’t have enough people to regulate all the businesses it is supposed to oversee and that some of its required inspections were years behind schedule.

TCEQ says it hasn’t found any air quality violations and has monitored the area on seven occasions, even using infrared cameras at times. The suspect company has a permit that allows it to release a certain amount of pollution. The investigation and air quality testing continues.

Yellowstone Crude Spill Sparks More Landowner Lawsuits

By: Duane Craig

Landowners in Eastern Montana have filed a lawsuit against Exxon Mobil Corp. for property damage from last year’s crude oil spill that contaminated the Yellowstone River. The landowners claim damage to their property and livestock from exposure to the oil, and also claim Exxon had ample opportunity to shut down the pipeline and prevent the spill altogether. Another lawsuit by a separate group of landowners is pending.

A section of the pipeline that was installed in 1991 had been scoured by flooding over the years which eventually caused it to fail and spill 1,500 barrels of crude oil, investigators surmised. Officials from one town had warned Exxon about the risks on several occasions. Still, the company continued flowing oil through the pipeline even when flooding was predicted, according to the suit. Other pipeline operators had shut down their lines under the same circumstances.

The spill contaminated about 70 miles of Yellowstone’s banks causing more damage to property than all other accidents in Montana during the past 10 years. You can get more details on the story here, and here.

Cabot Drills Into Notoriety

By: Duane Craig

Well, pardon the pun, Cabot Oil and Gas Corp. is in the news again as the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection investigates the problem of methane showing up in water wells in Susquehanna County. There is also some talk about a "bubbling pond" that contains combustible gas, although that is being disputed by the owner of the land -- a fellow who leased the land to Cabot so it could do some hydraulic fracturing there, or fracking.

Methane shows up in water wells

Cabot is being looked at because it is the company with the closest gas wells to the contaminated drinking water wells. Cabot's name was linked to the Dimock, Pennsylvania incident where a private water well exploded, ultimately making that community the poster child for the anti-fracking movement, according to this article in The Times-Tribune.com. Eventually Cabot was stopped near Dimock after the DEP linked gas in 18 water wells to its operations there. It's unclear how long Cabot will be allowed to continue drilling in Pennsylvania but the company has placed methane alarms in three homes near this incident and has vented its wells there to mitigate risks of contamination.

To see just how top-of-the-mind the environment is to Cabot you can read its 2010 annual report where its CEO writes for six pages about all levels of the company's operations but only gets close to any word remotely related to the environment, just one time. And that was to describe natural gas as an "eco-friendly fuel source."

Cabot made a net income in 2010 of a little more than $100 million.

Problems Arise With Southern Cap On Burlington's Pine Street Canal

By: Duane Craig

Barges in the Pine Street Superfund Site.

Pine Street Canal Superfund site still active.

Old, cleaned up or contained contamination sometimes resurfaces to create new problems. The Pine Street Canal in Burlington, Vermont, was once home to a coal gassification plant. For almost 60 years "plant wastewaters and residual oil and wood chips saturated with organic compounds were directly discharged or disposed of in the Pine Street Canal wetland.
During the 1960s and 1970s oily material seeping to the surface alerted authorities and tests showed high levels of polyaromatic hydrocarbons, benzene, tuolene, xylenes and other volatile organic compounds related to coal tar. At that time the concern was these contaminants would make their way into Lake Champlain, the community's source of drinking water, according o the EPA's background on the site.
Site wide cleanup activities followed emergency cleanup efforts and the record of decision listed capping and sealing contaminated sediment in the canal, the turning basin and adjacent wetlands. Administrative controls rounded out the plan. By 2009 though, the original cap was not holding back seepage of the contaminants at the canal's south end so a second cap was proposed. That cap will also fill up, so at the same time passive recovery wells need to be drilled to catch contaminates that can be pumped and treated.
According to a report in Bloomberg Bussinessweek, the EPA is amending its plan to cap the southern end of the canal by also adding an underground vertical barrier and it is looking for public comments on that new plan. This cleanup started in 1985, nearly 20 years after the contamination was discovered.

Oil spill on Brockton, MA West Side called ‘severe’

October 28, 2008 - BROCKTON - Some residents are reporting they smelled oil around storm drains in a West Side neighborhood for several weeks before a “severe” oil spill was discovered on Sunday, officials said.

Extensive cleanup operations continued Monday to remove the hundreds of gallons of home heating oil that contaminated West Meadow Brook and bordering wetlands.

More . . .

Two Michigan homes demolished due to contaminated soil; four more to be razed

October 14, 2008 - Like a warm smile with a sudden gap, a pleasant Muskegon Township neighborhood lost two of its oldest homes Monday -- doomed to demolition by a lingering legacy of oil in the soil.

Four more homes in the neighborhood will crash into splinters in coming days.

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Ongoing oil release in Shenandoah Pennsylvania

February 6, 2008 - Work began Tuesday to install an off-site monitoring well to determine if an ongoing oil release is affecting ground water or soil.

“This has been going on for several years and DEP requested an off-site well,” Olives said. “Levels were found to be slightly elevated and we are taking a look at the problem to ensure it is not coming from our site.”

“We believe there are underground storage tanks on the property and we are working to determine if there could be a potential problem,” Mark Carmon, DEP community relations spokesman, said. “There is no cause for concern that we are aware of at this point.”

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Brooklyn Oil Spill May Be 30 Million Gallons

September 13, 2007 - The EPA, which spent a year looking at the environmental horror of the Exxon-Mobil oil spill in Greenpoint, has concluded that original estimate of 17 million gallons spilled underground "may have been low." How low? How does 30 million gallons sound?

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Residents of Pacific Grove California hope 21 year old oil contamination will be cleaned this fall

September 12, 2007 - An oil pollution spill in Pacific Grove discovered 21 years ago may finally be cleaned up this fall.

Oil seeping from the old Grove Laundry building was first discovered in 1986 by Edward and Margaret McCoy, whose property at 164 12th St. is adjacent and downhill from the old site.

The old laundry building once housed boilers fired by bunker oil that was stored in underground sumps on the property at Lighthouse Avenue and 12th Street. The leak was discovered after part of the building was torn down.

The McCoys bought their 111-year-old house in 1947 and had been renting it out at the time the oil seep was discovered, said their daughter, Cecelia "C.C." McCoy, who inherited the property after their deaths and now lives in the house.

"It's been my Love Canal," she said, referring to the environmental contamination of a housing project and school built over a chemical waste dump near Niagara, N.Y., that was discovered in 1978 when residents became ill.

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Neighborhood Contaminated by Residential Oil Leak

April 19, 2007 - Local officials have intervened on behalf of Rumson homeowners whose properties are contaminated as a result of a home-heating oil spill on an adjacent property.

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