A substance described as diesel or fuel oil was detected in a well about nine months ago at the Wild Wild Rest toxic spill site west of Mancos.
The findings were included in a 114-page Environmental Protection Agency site assessment report dated Feb. 15. Geologist Roy Weindorf of Weston Solutions, based in West Chester, Penn., concluded in the report that the suspected diesel or fuel oil was removed from a well listed as MW-15, and that the suspicious Light Nonaqueous Phase Liquid (LNAPL) material hadn’t been detected again as of mid-January. Surface and groundwater test at Wild Wild Rest were conducted on Dec. 9, 2014.
“The spill report indicates that gasoline and not diesel was spilled,” wrote Weindorf. “As a result, the detected LNAPL layer in MW-15 was unexpected.”
Property owner Ray McCarty, however, said scores of five-gallon buckets of contaminated liquid were removed from the MW-15 well over three days in June. McCarty said an unidentified EPA official was charged with purging the well.
“They purged about 150 gallons from the well,” said McCarty. “It kept refilling with an orange liquid.”
Outside of the MW-15 well, the February EPA report concluded that no contaminates exceeding regulatory standards were detected in off-site surface water or off-site groundwater samples. The report further stated that no significant levels of benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and xylenes (BTEX) had penetrated into underground aquifers.
A 6,000-gallon gasoline spill was reported at the Wild Wild Rest station, used as a fuel station for about 50 years, after the removal of three storage tanks in 2006. The gas station closed in 2004.
“The EPA has a problem,” McCarty said. “Something is going on.”
After the petrochemical spill, McCarty erected a billboard that read, “Massive Petroleum Spill – Toxic Site” and signs with skull-and-cross bone icons and “This Toxic Mess Brought To You By State of Colorado.” They remain on the property.
In January 2010, McCarty filed a lawsuit related to the spill, alleging that drilling, excavating and core sampling created a discharge of benzene, water of abnormal salinity and hydrocarbon fuel derivative. McCarty claimed that the groundwater was subsequently contaminated. A jury awarded him $1 in damages.
Also in 2010, state officials devised a corrective action plan to clean the site. Mitigation would include removal of contaminated soil, re-contouring the property and installing monitoring stations at an estimated cost to the state of $200,000. The effort stalled after McCarty refused to provide access to his property.
McCarty is currently involved in a subsequent legal battle with Sinclair Oil Corp., after the company used a court order to remove their trademarked logos from the property in July. Requesting a jury trial, McCarty is challenging the legality of the court order and requesting that the company’s vintage brontosaurus-themed signs, considered one of the most recognizable corporate logos in the world, be returned.
At a hearing in July, the court warned McCarty, serving as his own attorney in the proceedings, that he could be on the hook for Sinclair’s attorney fees, estimated at $350 per hour, if he continued to pursue the case.
tbaker@cortezjournal.com