Tracey Tizard said she can never sell her home.
She has to monitor her 10-year-old daughter, Emma, when she plays outside, guarding against handfuls of workmen who traverse her property. She has to find alternate sources of drinking water, and think twice before she uses her tap when she does dishes, washes clothes, or takes a shower.
The Tizards and about 50 other families in the Jacksonsville, Md., community say no money could compensate for the inconveniences they continue to battle since 25,000 gallons of gasoline leaked from an underground tank at a local gas station earlier this year. However, each filed individual lawsuits Thursday against the station?s operator and owner, Exxon Mobil Corp., requesting $1 billion in total punitive damages to help.
“They can settle with their CEO?s retirement fund,” Tizard said. “It?s the least they can do for the disruption of an entire neighborhood.”
The suits, filed in Baltimore County Circuit Court, seeks payment for property damage and diminished property value, as well as the emotional distress and need for continued health monitoring among residents of the community. According to the state?s Department of the Environment ? which last month filed its own multimillion-dollar suit against the company ? as many as 700 gallons of gas poured from a hole in an underground tank for 37 days before it was reported.
Exxon spokeswoman Betsy Eaton said she could not comment on the suits until she had a chance to review them.
“I don?t even know if we?ve been served or not,” she said. “Our primary focus continues to be our recovery and remediation efforts.”
