Marlborough residents coping with gas leak seek new liability law
Marlborough residents and city leaders on Tuesday shared stories of well-manicured backyards turned into fields of testing wells, homes placed under environmental restrictions and the continuous loss of home equity as a result of a 2012 gasoline leak.
For two and a half years, four families in the city have coped with living on contaminated soil while the gas station owner whose underground storage tank leaked fuel into the soil and groundwater "has been allowed to get away with atrocious crimes," Rep. Danielle Gregoire said.
Gregoire introduced two families and a handful of Marlborough city councilors to the Joint Committee on Financial Services as she sought support for a bill that would put more liability on the owners of underground storage tanks by requiring that they carry at least $10 million in liability insurance to pay for remediation of contamination.
In the spring of 2012, the underground storage tank at a Citgo station in Marlborough began to leak, and more than 2,000 gallons of unleaded gasoline seeped through the ground.
"The gasoline went all through our yard, under our house and into our sump pump well," Debby Chavez said. "Had the water table been higher, and the sump pump running, the resulting explosion would have destroyed our house and most likely killed anyone inside."
The spill and the resulting contamination affected four properties near the gas station, plunging homeowners into years of cleanup, decreasing home values and litigation.
"As of today, approximately 2,000 gallons of gasoline and over 3.5 million gallons of contaminated water has been removed from our property and our neighbors'," Karen Buckley said. "Our amazing backyard, that before this nightmare began had a beautiful swimming pool, a bocce ball court, a horseshoe pit, an outdoor bar kitchen and a lighthouse-themed bathroom, now sadly is all gone. Our backyard was destroyed and torn apart."
The gas station owner, who under federal law is not required to carry liability insurance, was able to tap into a state fund that offers reimbursements for gas and petroleum spill cleanup costs. The so-called 21J Fund, named for the section of state law that created it, is funded through underground storage tank registration fees and a 2.5 cent tax on every gallon of gas delivered in the state.
Homeowners can also be reimbursed from the fund for property damage and bodily injury, but only by first winning a civil judgement in court. Buckley said she and her husband have filed a lawsuit against the gas station owner so they can recoup the cost of their swimming pool. But the state fund caps payouts at $1.5 million per spill and every penny of that has already been spent, Buckley said.
And as much as the Buckleys and Chavezes might like to put their homes on the market and rid themselves of the worry that the contamination could have some long-term health affects, they said selling their properties has proved impossible.
"We cannot move. No bank will give a mortgage to any buyer for a (Department of Environmental Protection)-registered contaminated property," Buckley said. "Even in three to four more years when the DEP states we will finally be considered clean, we will only be able to get pennies on the dollar for what our homes were worth before this massive spill."
Some committee members said they intend to take a closer look at the 21J Fund after being, as Rep. Timothy Madden said, "shocked and appalled" to hear Buckley and Chavez tell their stories.
"It's not only that single issue of the value of your house, but it's also this unknown of the lasting effects that this will have, not only on your finances but your health," Rep. Chris Walsh, who said he was "pretty outraged," told the homeowners. "The issue, in my view, too, is one of why are these spills happening? We know these tanks are in the ground, we know they are a hazard. I believe that to begin with the Commonwealth has to do a much, much better job of preventing these to start with because trying to fix all of these things in arrears is inadequate and I apologize."
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