The contamination lawsuit between Campbell County and the owners of a mobile home park near the landfill in Rustburg ended Friday with the Virginia Supreme Court reversing a lower court’s decision, and finding in the county’s favor.
Campbell County no longer owes $9.6 million to Claude and Virginia Royal, the owners of Twin Oaks manufactured home community.
Regardless, the county still will spend millions of dollars cleaning up the contaminants that leached from the landfill and into the water on their property.
If the Royals wish to pursue the matter, they can file a petition within 10 days asking the case be reheard, and within 30 days file a brief in support of that motion. If one of the five justices that sided with the county agrees, the Supreme Court may grant a rehearing.
The Royals’ attorney, Monica Monday of Roanoke-based Gentry, Locke, Rakes & Moore said Friday the Royals had not decided whether to ask for a hearing, saying, “we’re exploring those opportunities now.”
Monday said the Supreme Court’s ruling was unexpected. She noted a judge had ruled the county was responsible, a jury had awarded the $9 million verdict and the judge had then approved the jury’s verdict.
“We are surprised because the way that we had analyzed the legal issues is the same way the dissenting justices did,” Monday said.
Two of the seven Supreme Court justices sided with the Royals.
“Because we conclude that the Oil Discharge Law does not apply to the passive, gradual seepage of leachate and landfill gas into groundwater, we will reverse the trial court’s judgment,” the court said in an opinion issued by Chief Justice Cynthia Kinser on Friday.
In 2010, Circuit Court Judge Michael Gamble applied Virginia’s water control laws and the federal Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act of 1980 to the case. The jury found in favor of the Royals.
The county appealed to the Supreme Court to overturn the verdict, on the grounds the two laws are not applicable and the award granted by the jury excessive.
The two laws deal with hazardous discharges but provide exemptions for oil. In the lawsuit, the element benzene, which can be an element of oil or exist separately, is argued to have been found in the groundwater at the manufactured home park in the Yellow Branch area.
That means the Oil Discharge Law can’t be applied in this case, according to the Supreme Court’s decision.
“In Campbell County the matter is now concluded, the county owes the Royals nothing more than what the county has already done,” said County Attorney David Shreve.
The case, which began in April of 2002, has cost the county $1.5 million to date.
The county has spent $3 million on remediation, including the installation of two extraction systems, one for water and a second for gas.
Numerous wells were installed on the Royals’ 165-acre property, from which water is shuttled to a treatment facility where air exposure makes the chemicals non-volatile. The water is then treated for PH and released into an unnamed tributary of the Tussocky Creek, which traverses the landfill.
The gas extraction system pulls gasses from the waste mass at the landfill and draws it into a flare station where the gases are burned off before they have the chance to migrate anywhere.
It costs about $100,000 annually to operate and maintain both systems. Those costs will continue until testing shows the Royals’ water has been contamination free for three consecutive years.
“We’re doing remediation every day and there is nothing more that we can do,” said Shreve.
The disagreement began in 2002, when the Royals discovered elevated levels of volatile organic chemicals in their well water. Their property, whose southern border is adjacent to the 160-acre landfill, draws water from wells the Royals installed in small clusters on the land. Each well serves five residences.
Volatile organic chemicals, or VOCs, which come from household and cleaning supplies and car fluids, are common in municipal landfills.
The amounts detected in the Royals’ water exceeded the amount allowed by the federal Environmental Protection Agency.
The Royals requested the county provide the property with water in 2002. In April of 2010 the project to connect the county water line to Twin Oaks was completed, though the Royals have not yet made the final connection to the line.
Unable to come to an agreement with the county after the contamination was detected, the Royals filed a $10 million lawsuit. It contended the county violated federal and state environmental laws when chemicals from the landfill entered their property and the contamination rendered their park worthless.
According to the Royals, several wells — it is still unknown how many — were affected by the contamination. Homes using those wells were transferred to clean wells.
As the case wove its way through the system, efforts to clean the water continued. In 2006, the county installed 24 remediation wells on the Royals’ property. Those same wells continue to pump thousands of gallons of water daily to the landfill for treatment.
“We’re capturing all the groundwater that can be captured efficiently,” said Shreve. Experts estimate this process will need to continue for anywhere from 15 to 40 years, as long as it takes for the water to be contaminant free for three consecutive years.
In 2009 a jury sided with the Royals and awarded $9.6 million in damages; $6 million for the value of the property and business, $2 million for loss of use of groundwater and about $1 million for lost revenue.
Campbell County immediately asked for a new trial, claiming the award was excessive and the jury was misled by an expert witness. The county appealed to the state Supreme Court, arguing Gamble misapplied state and federal environmental laws when deciding the case.
Although the Royals have the legal ability to continue with the case, Shreve said rehearings “are extraordinarily unusual” in the state of Virginia.
Attorney Gerald Gray, president of the Virginia Conservation Network, said the Supreme Court’s finding was very narrow but “they closed the door firmly on the Oil Discharge Law.”
“I am concerned whether landowners will have a remedy when counties fail to control the leachate that flows through their landfills,” said Gray. Going forward, Gray said landowners will have to look toward legislation to find a resolution.
For the full judgment visit: http://www.courts.state.va.us/opinions/opnscvwp/1101168.pdf
Email
Facebook
Google
Twitter
Favorites
More
Advertisement