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Thursday, December 09, 2004

Environment - More stories today

"Lawrenceburg sues gas company over polluted water" is the headline to this story today in the Aurora Journal-Press. Some quotes:

The City of Lawrenceburg has filed suit in Dearborn Circuit Court seeking compensatory damages from the Lawrenceburg Gas Co. and four co-defendants in connection with the release to the surface of 650,000 gallons of salt brine/connate water two years ago.

The suit contends that the polluted water released Nov. 6, 2002, from a natural gas storage reservoir did “Impact and/or threatened to impact the local aquifer, which serves as a water source for the City of Lawrenceburg, as well as others.”

Listed as one of the co-defendants with Lawrenceburg Gas Co., also known as Cinergy, is Stair & Associates Inc., Indianapolis, Ind., and Middleton Corp., of Akron, Ohio, which were installing a geothermal loop heat exchanger for an elementary school that was built behind the Greendale Middle School in Lawrenceburg. * * *

The suit contends that the incident occurred while the co-defendants were engaged in drilling the 400-foot geothermal line. At or near 290 feet below the surface, the city contends that the drilling broke into a subsurface reservoir of natural gas, believed to be owned and operated by the defendant, Cinergy.

As a result of the release of pollutants into the city’s aquifer, the suit charges, and as ordered by the Indiana Department of Environmental Management, the city incurred “significant damages in terms of response and remediation costs,” according to the legal filings.

The response and remediation costs included emergency mobilization of response teams, subsurface investigations into the extent of the brine contamination, pumping and removal of brine contamination, and testing and confirmation sampling of the area upon completion to ensure that primary and secondary drinking water standards were met, and that the aquifer had been cleaned up in accordance with state and federal law, according to the court documents.

The suit notes that the City of Lawrenceburg bears no fault in the damages, and that the defendants are jointly and severally liable for the damages incurred by the city. Lawrenceburg’s suit was filed by city attorney Joseph W. Votaw III.

"Defunct companies must pay fines, clean sites," is the headline to this story today in the Richmond Palladium-Item. Some quotes:
Two former Winchester companies have been ordered to pay $206,000 for violating the state's environmental protection laws and clean up their former site.

According to a press release from Indiana Attorney General Steve Carter, who sought the penalties, Carson Stripping and Carson Laser and their operator, Gary Phelps, must pay the fine and are ordered to establish measures to identify and dispose of the hazardous waste.

Carter had filed a lawsuit in Randolph Superior Court last month to enforce a penalty and compliance order from the Indiana Department of Environmental Management.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on December 9, 2004 03:43 PM
Posted to Environment