City Lawsuit

[Made in the USA]

Does anyone understand this lawsuit?? Who is suing who, and any details? For some reason it just doesn't make proper sense to me after reading the article.

City nearing settlement in class action lawsuit
By Mark Vierthaler
Dodge City Daily Globe


City leaders will meet in executive session Monday to discuss what sort of financial impact they can expect from a class-action lawsuit in which Dodge City and several other Kansas towns are plaintiffs.

The lawsuit, filed in federal court, seeks damages for water that may have contained dangerous levels of the gasoline additive methyl tertiary-butyl ether, or MTBE.

City Manager/legal counsel Ken Strobel said that because a monetary figure had not been settled on for the lawsuit, he could not discuss specifics of the case.

"Of course we have an idea of what it's going to cost," he said. "But because it is ongoing, we can't really discuss it."

In 1998, the Kansas Department of Health and Environment released a study showing four wells in Dodge City contained between .9 micrograms per liter and 29.5 mpl of MTBE. The city promptly stopped using the well that tested 29.5 mpl.

Studies have shown 20 to 40 micrograms per liter of MTBE can cause cancer in laboratory rats. It is currently unknown what effect, if any, MTBE has on humans.

A KDHE study showed that the most likely cause for the problems in Dodge City could be traced back to leaky gas tanks that had seeped gasoline into the ground and water.

The most recent test done in Dodge City was in 2005, said KDHE spokesman Joe Blubaugh. He said KDHE's records showed that no wells tested for MTBE, except one.

Dodge City well number five, which tested 29.5 mpl in 1998, showed a .93 mpl level.

"MTBE is not regulated by the EPA," Blubaugh said. "But if it were, 20 to 40 mpl would be considered dangerous. We don't see a current risk."

Check out Tuesday's Daily Globe for complete coverage.

[TexKan]

Yeah - so who is suing who?

[pootsy]

Isn't the federal government suing Dodge City?

[Bubba]

Originally Posted by TexKan

Yeah - so who is suing who?

It says in the article that Dodge City is the plaintiff with other cities in the class action suit. So they brought the lawsuit against some defendant that I don't see named in the article. So the cities are suing somebody, we just don't know who from reading this article.

[TexKan]

yeah that's what I thought - well THAT was really worth printing!! Wonder who the "offender" is that jackin with the water supply by leaking fuel????? Kinda scary.

[Value Pack]

The long and short of this is that Dodge City along with a few other cities awoke a sleeping giant, namely the US Petroleum Industry. These cities (Dodge City, Park City, City of Bel Air, and Chisholm Creek Utility) started this and the oil companies finished the matter in no uncertain terms. The matter has been settled out of court with the cities having to pay for 100s of attorneys at $100’s of dollars per hour per attorney. Overall the entire suit generated over 8,000 sheets of paper.


COMPLAINT 01-09-2004, filed by BP Products North America Inc., CITGO Petroleum Corporation, Chevron USA Inc, Exxon Mobil Corporation, Marathon Ashland Petroleum LLC.

This case in federal court started in Kansas Federal Court on 01-09-2004 and was settled out of court on 08-30-2007 in New York State US Federal Court with a Notice of Voluntary Dismissal.

These cities more or less stated that the ground water had been contaminated with MTBE (methyl tertiary butyl ether) by the Petroleum Companies and the cities wanted to be paid for the damage.

The US Petroleum Industry answered as follows: (not the entire answer but enough to give you an idea) (yea, this is long, don't forget there are 8,000 pages. This is a Reader's Digest version)

Nature of the Case

1. This case arises out of an unprecedented attack on the pervasive federal regulatory scheme governing the content of gasoline. It is an attack launched through an avalanche of state court lawsuits filed against various petroleum refiners, making nearly identical legal claims that refining, distributing, and/or marketing gasoline containing methyl tertiary butyl ether ("MTBE"), a federally approved gasoline component used to comply with federally mandated oxygenated fuels programs, by itself, gives rise to liability under state statutes or common law theories, such as negligence or strict products liability (collectively referred to herein as "MTBE products liability claims").

2. In other words, state court plaintiffs, in a raft of recent filings, seek to hold refiners liable based solely upon their compliance with a federally mandated fuel content requirement by using one of the seven approved oxygenates.

3. Moreover, these same state court plaintiffs invariably pray for punitive, exemplary, or enhanced damages, or penalties, all sought to punish refiners and others premised exclusively on conduct both authorized and required by federal law. In sum, state court plaintiffs seek to punish refiners retrospectively for complying with comprehensive federal requirements by using MTBE and to effectively ban the use of MTBE prospectively, notwithstanding its federal approval.

4. At its core, this case presents the question of who may determine the content of gasoline for motor vehicles nationwide: the United States Environmental Protection Agency, charged by Congress in the Clean Air Act with that authority; or, disparate civil juries in state courts in multiple jurisdictions in a large number of individual separate actions?

5. Collectively, the state court actions asserting MTBE products liability claims threaten a federally regulated activity essential to local, regional, interstate and international commerce. These MTBE products liability claims threaten to disrupt supplies of gasoline by allowing civil juries to effectively ban the use of MTBE in gasoline. State court MTBE products liability claims seek to have civil juries substitute their judgment for that of Congress and the USEPA.

6. This attack should be stopped now, because product liability claims concerning the content of gasoline — specifically, the oxygenate content of gasoline — are preempted by the Federal Government's pervasive occupation of the field, as well as by the objectives and system of regulation enacted by Congress and promulgated by the USEPA in this area.

7. Plaintiffs seek declaratory relief, praying for a judgment declaring that such claims are preempted under the Supremacy Clause of the United States Constitution.

8. It is important to note that this case is not about the culpability or liability of individuals or entities that affirmatively release (e.g., spill) gasoline into the environment that actually and proximately causes environmental harm. State statutory and common law provide well-established and tested civil remedies -- such as claims for nuisance -- to parties who have suffered such injuries, to be asserted against the person or persons actually responsible for the release itself. Such traditional state law statutory and tort claims are not preempted by federal law, are not affected by Plaintiffs' claim for declaratory relief and will not be lost to state court claimants if this Court grants the relief sought.

9. Instead, this case concerns attempts to hold an entire industry liable, based upon various novel state product liability and unfair trade practice theories, for alleged environmental harm with which Plaintiffs, as refiners, distributors, or marketers had no connection, based upon conduct authorized and effectively required by federal law.

10. The content of all gasoline is pervasively regulated by the Federal Government. The federal Clean Air Act, 42 U.S.C. § §7400, et seq., prohibits the sale of any gasoline that has not been duly registered with and meets requirements promulgated by the USEPA. 42 U.S.C. § 7545.

11. Section 7545(c)(4)(A) specifically provides that "no State (or political subdivision thereof) may prescribe or attempt to enforce, for purposes of motor vehicle emission control, any control or prohibition respecting any characteristic or component of a fuel or fuel additive in a motor vehicle . . .

12. An adequate and assured supply of gasoline for motor vehicles is critical to the economic health of the United States on a national, regional and local level.

13. Approximately 336,000,000 gallons of gasoline are consumed in the United States every day. Gasoline is critical to fire and police protection and other essential services including health care, sanitation, education and Homeland Security. Gasoline is also critical to the Nation's economy, acting as the very "life-blood" in transporting goods and providing services. Gasoline is an essential commodity to tens of millions of Americans going to work and carrying out their everyday activities.

14. Refining, distributing and marketing gasoline is a complex and competitive business conducted on a national and international scale. Gasoline purchases by consumers are the end product of an extended and comprehensive infrastructure, with many participants here and abroad. The gasoline sold at a local gasoline service station, for example, may have been: pumped as crude oil in Saudi Arabia or Venezuela; shipped across the Atlantic Ocean or Gulf of Mexico; refined in Texas or Louisiana; transported through pipelines crossing up to 14 or 15 States; stored at various terminals large and small in a number of States; and, finally, delivered that morning or that week by truck to the service station.

15. In 1979, MTBE was first registered with and approved by the USEPA as an additive to gasoline, pursuant to 42 U.S.C. §7545 and its implementing regulations. Only with such regulation and approval did it become lawful to add MTBE into gasoline sold anywhere in the United States.

16. In 1990, concerned with a compelling need to improve the Nation's air quality, Congress amended the Clean Air Act to mandate minimum required amounts of oxygen in all gasoline sold in many areas of the United States. In enacting these amendments, Congress knew and intended that petroleum refiners would have to blend "oxygenates"1 into gasoline to meet these new standards.

17. In 1990, when it mandated the use of oxygenates in gasoline, Congress knew that, due to supply limitations and technical considerations, only a limited number of oxygenates could be used to meet the new oxygenate requirements. Congress also knew and intended that one of those oxygenates would be methyl-tertiary butyl ether, or MTBE. For instance, Senator Daschle's remarks concerning how the oxygenate mandates would be met acknowledged USEPA's prediction "that the amendment will be met almost exclusively by MTBE, a methanol derivative." 136 Cong. Rec. 10792 (1990).

18. In 1992 and 1994, in its regulations implementing the Clean Air Act oxygenate mandates, USEPA specifically approved the use of MTBE by refiners to comply with these fuel content requirements. USEPA recognized, both at those times and more recently, that refiners must use MTBE to comply with the federal oxygenate mandates.

19. Plaintiffs are companies that have been or are extensively engaged in the production, refining, distributing, and marketing of petroleum products, including gasoline containing MTBE in compliance with the federal Clean Air Act's oxygenate mandates.

20. A potential crisis now threatens this pervasive federal regulatory scheme, as well as the petroleum industry's ability to supply gasoline throughout the country that complies with federal fuel content requirements. That crisis is an explosion of state court lawsuits filed by….. “(and on and on for another 30 pages on this brief alone).

Anyway, this matter has been settled out of court and now the attorneys have to be paid who we always knew would be the real winners.

Now you know why there is not much being said about this due to the fact that this is embarrassing for whoever were our City Commissioners back in 2003. MTBE is protected by federal law. This was a lost cause before it was filed.

[Made in the USA]

Thanks VP! That makes it a little easier to understand. Sounds like they didn't do their homework. Everybody knows that you can't "buck" the oil companies, because they are too busy "bucking" us!