Clean Up of Maryland Pipeline Leak Is Subject of Lawsuit
Who has to pay to remediate the leak from an oil pipeline
Chevron USA Inc. is suing Apex Oil Company Inc. in Maryland federal court alleging that Apex is responsible for clean-up costs at a Baltimore site where a pipeline leaked petroleum hydrocarbons. Chevron has spent more than $30 million on remediation. It has been paying for cleaning up oil spills at the site since 1985 when Chevron and Gulf Oil Corp. merged.
Chevron’s complaint alleges that it sold a Baltimore oil pipeline to Apex in 1994, and since then, the pipeline has been leaking petroleum products into the Baltimore Harbor and surrounding areas. Chevron is seeking a contribution from Apex to clean up the contamination, which according to Chevron, includes a 20-acre plume of subsurface petroleum and approximately 750,000 gallons of free product.
When Chevron sold the pipeline to Apex, it claims that the agreement provided that Apex would be responsible for dealing with any new contamination. Chevron maintains that in 1994, at the time of the sale, clean up of the site was almost complete and that it was close to receiving a release from the state of Maryland. Chevron insists that existing contamination at the site was not there when it sold the pipeline to Apex and that Apex should be paying to remove it.
Maryland environmental regulators required testing of the pipeline in 1997, and Chevron claims the results showed fresh gasoline and not the weathered diesel from a 1979 spill that Chevron was responsible for cleaning up pursuant to its 1994 agreement. Moreover, Apex replaced a portion of the pipeline after discovering a large crack in 2012, and the company removed 163 tons of petroleum contaminated soil. Chevron alleges that Apex closed the pipeline in 2013.
The commercial litigation and environmental litigation groups at Longman & Van Grack has the tenacity and experience needed to successfully guide your business through any legal dispute. Specifically, Longman & Van Grack Attorney Adam Van Grack has litigated many complex commercial legal matters and also handled appeals of such matters. Contact us today at (301) 291-5027. We have offices in Bethesda and Rockville, Maryland.
