Kansas David vs Oil Goliath

From 1897 to 1970 a petroleum refinery operated in the southeastern Kansas town of Neodesha. The former refinery is owned by BP, formerly Amoco Oil Company, formerly Standard Oil Company. Operations at the facility included crude distillation, catalytic cracking, platinum reforming, and steam generation.

Neodesha now says it wants more than $423 million in damages, less than half of the $1 billion the city sought when it originally filed the lawsuit March 29, 2004 in Wilson County District Court.

The lawsuit alleges that the refinery had poisoned the groundwater and soil and that its managers covered up the pollution to avoid liability.

The city's lawsuit focuses on cleanup efforts at the site, which it says are inadequate, and the harm the pollution has done to property values and city revenues rather than on residents' health problems.

The city of Neodesha is doing battle with BP. At stake are hundreds of millions of dollars. (Photo courtesy Neodesha Chamber of Commerce)

For years, retired schoolteacher Lucille Campbell tried to draw attention to the health concerns related to the Neodesha Refinery.

"It is alarming how many people have or have died of cancer," Campbell said. "Despite being a pretty little town in the country, Neodesha's death rate stays in the top four in the state."

Campbell's organization, the Neodesha Environmental Awareness Team, has tried to raise public awareness about the site, but the refinery has not been added to the national Superfund List, and it remains a threat to public health.

When refinery operations ceased in 1970, tanks, process equipment, and most of the structures were removed. A portion of the site was donated to the City of Neodesha and is being used as an industrial park with several businesses in operation.

Following the closing of the refinery, many illnesses were reported throughout Neodesha. Investigations found groundwater contamination, including a plume of benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and xylene from the site into Neodesha.

The plume affected residential areas, schools, churches, and business and industrial park areas. Testing has detected the contaminated groundwater plume beneath city hall, homes and schools.

Campbell does not believe a lawsuit is the best way to handle the problem. "If they file a lawsuit," she says, "they can settle out of court, and the issue of the sick and dying would never be addressed."

Many of the city's residents do not want the refinery site listed as a Superfund site even if that would mean federal government money and assistance for cleanup. They believe that declaring the refinery a Superfund site would create an irreversible "black eye," on Neodesha's public face.

They want the company to compensate them for damaged groundwater and the state to oversee the cleanup.

The state of Kansas has been involved in investigating the contamination. In June 2002, petroleum hydrocarbon materials were observed in two surface water drainage ditches and reported to the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, KDHE.

One ditch is located downstream of an outfall of the City of Neodesha's stormwater sewer system which drains portions of the city's residential area and industrial park.

Soil samples from this ditch indicated elevated concentrations of lead and hydrocarbon odors have been detected in stormwater runoff flowing in this ditch after rainfall events, the state agency said.

A second ditch is located south of the industrial park where one of two stormwater sewer lines has been diverted to allow discharge to the surface near two of five settling basins had formerly received stormwater runoff and liquid wastes from the refinery for treatment.

A soil sample from this ditch indicated elevated concentrations of lead and mercury, according to KDHE.

BP Products North America admits in court documents that its former refinery had incidental, non-negligent leaks, but the company is fighting allegations of fraudulent concealment and other allegations made by the plaintiffs.

BP blames most of the pollution beyond the refinery property on a lighting strike in the late 1960s that struck one of its storage tanks, causing an explosion and fire.

The company says chemicals from the former refinery pose no health risk to Neodesha residents.

A jury is hearing evidence now in an Erie, Kansas courtroom and the trial is expected to last several more weeks.

Copyright Environment News Service (ENS) 2007. All rights reserved.