Scores of Baltimore County families are scheduled to launch their case in court this morning against ExxonMobil for a 25,000-gallon gasoline leak at a Jacksonville fuel station.
Lawyers for ExxonMobil Corp. and hundreds of Jacksonville residents collectively known as the Alban plaintiffs will offer opening arguments in Baltimore County Circuit Court today, they said. Residents are seeking $1 billion in damages from the February 2006 spill — when officials estimated 675 gallons of fuel leaked every day for 37 days from an underwater storage tank.
The trial could last between three and five months, said Andrew Gendron, an attorney representing ExxonMobil. Gendron referred additional questions to Jim Sanders, an Exxon attorney who represented the company during criminal and civil proceedings during the massive Valdez oil spill in Alaska in 1989.
Sanders did not respond to a request for comment by press time, nor did an attorney for the plaintiffs, Robert Weltchek.
The class-action lawsuit is one of two filed by neighbors whose properties and wells were contaminated by a fuel additive, both naming Exxon and station operator Storto Enterprises.
Last month, state officials settled Maryland’s own $12 million lawsuit against the company for $4 million — the largest civil penalty ever levied by the state Department of the Environment. At the time, company spokeswoman Beth Snyder said the company, which posted nearly $12 billion in earnings in the second quarter, closed the station and has spent more than $34 million so far in cleanup. The “vast majority” of oil has been recovered, Snyder said.
State environmental officials said about 10,700 gallons of liquid gasoline have been recovered, but fuel in a dissolved state remains in groundwater. They have accused Exxon and Storto of failing to report the leak sooner despite obvious inventory discrepancies.
