BOSTON -- Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley obtained a $600,000 judgment late last week against the owners and operators of four gas stations in Medford and Malden for failing to clean up gasoline spills and related petroleum products.
The judgment, entered Monday by Suffolk Superior Court Associate Justice Carol Ball, requires Tony Eskanian and Ramona Eskanian, both of Winchester, and J & S Petroleum Corp. to clean up the contamination at the stations pursuant to a court ordered schedule prepared by the Massachusetts Department of Environmental [image-nocss] Protection (MassDEP).
The judgment resolves a 2004 lawsuit alleging that the owners and operators of the stations leaked gasoline and other pollutants into the groundwater and soil and failed to follow cleanup procedures required by the state Superfund Law. Under state regulations known as the Massachusetts Contingency Plan (MCP), when a hazardous material or gasoline is released to the environment, the responsible parties must assess the situation in a timely manner, remediate the spill and report the outcome of the clean up to MassDEP.
The complaint alleges that the defendants committed multiple violations of the state's hazardous spill remediation laws at the stations over a 10-year period.
The stations are high volume, cash-only fuel and automotive repair stations operated primarily by Tony Eskanian: Service 93 Station, Malden; Tony's Service Station, Medford; Rt. 60 Econo Gas, Medford; King Petroleum, Medford.
Within the next 14 months, the Eskanians, the trusts they manage and J & S Petroleum must clean up each station to MCP standards and must be approved by MassDEP. Under the judgment, if the defendants fully satisfy all of their cleanup obligations in a timely manner, $300,000 of the penalty may be forgiven.
In its complaint, the Commonwealth alleged that the Eskanians, their businesses and J & S Petroleum, failed to provide proper documentation of cleanup actions taken at each gasoline station. In April 2002, there was a gasoline leak at the Service 93 Station, resulting in gasoline from an underground storage tank infiltrating groundwater wells, which eventually flowed from the property into a utility vault owned by National Grid, creating a buildup of combustible vapors. In addition to addressing this emergency situation, the Eskanians were required to assess fully the extent of the leak, develop a correction plan to be approved by MassDEP and perform and document the clean up, but failed to do so.
The judgment also penalized the owner-operators for violating the state's Stage II Vapor Recovery Regulations under the Clean Air Act. The owner-operators failed to perform annual Stage II compliance testing and weekly inspections and failed to replace damaged equipment on the vapor recovery equipment on gas pumps, which protects the atmosphere and consumers from harmful gas vapors.
In Ohio, Attorney General Marc Dann is suing two business owners who have ignored numerous orders to comply with underground storage tank (UST) regulations set forth by the Ohio Department of Commerce's Division of State Fire Marshal.
The lawsuits, which were filed in common pleas courts in Stark, Summit, Cuyahoga, Belmont, Monroe, Tuscarawas, Lorain, and Jefferson counties allege that Donald C. Coen and Robert D. Coen, who control or operate the four companies named in the suits: Coen Co., the Coen Oil Co., Rocket Oil Co. and Carlton B. Coen Land Co., violated the law by failing to register USTs, refusing to take corrective action on leaking tanks, and failing to clean up tank spills.
The AG's action targets 28 gas stations sites or properties that contain USTs, most of which are no longer in use.
These defendants have been given ample time to comply with the law. Instead, they've allowed these tanks to remain underground at abandoned gas stations, leaking petroleum into the soil. They've ignored numerous orders to do the right thing, so now, we will see them in court, Dann said.
The lawsuits are asking the courts to force the Coens to immediately register their tanks that are currently in use, to take the steps necessary to responsibly and legally close or remove the inoperable tanks and to implement corrective measures at known contaminated sites. The suits also seek civil penalties, attorney fees, and court costs from the defendants.
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