BY ANDY TAYLOR
chronicle@taylornews.org
WICHITA — Coffeyville Resources Refining and Marketing, LLC, has settled federal lawsuits filed by several Coffeyville-area property owners who claimed their properties were contaminated with crude oil from the Coffeyville-based refinery complex during the July 2007 flood.
Settlement papers were signed Friday, Aug. 27, in federal district court in Wichita by attorneys representing the property owners and Coffeyville Resources.
The settlement agreement calls for Coffeyville Resources to pay the following property owners for oil contamination damages and property damages from the July 2007 flood:
• Duane and Betty Angleton — $35,000
• George Chronister and Louise Stills – $22,500
• Jerrold M. and Mary E. Dettle — $33,000
• Renee Helphinstine — $25,000
• Ty and Tammy Johnson — $20,000
• Eighth Street Car Wash/LMT Enterprise, Inc. — $175,000
• Karen Pfister — $11,000
The property owners joined as many as 13 other property owners in a 2008 federal lawsuit in which they claim that wanton and reckless negligence on the part of Coffeyville Resources allowed more than 90,000 gallons of crude oil, diesel and other pollutants to spill out of the refinery when Coffeyville Resources workers were preparing to leave the refinery complex due to the rising waters of the July 2007 flood. The spillage of petroleum products into the flood water further contaminated the flood-ravaged area of Coffeyville and the surrounding area of the Verdigris River, which carried a sheen of oil as far as 10 miles south of Coffeyville, according to the complaint.
The collective sum in damages sought by all landowners in the 2008 lawsuit is $4.39 million, according to court records. To date, only seven of the property owners have agreed to settlements from Coffeyville Resources.
Randall Rathbun, a Wichita attorney representing the property owners, said the key issue in the lawsuit comes down to negligence on the part of Coffeyville Resources. The refinery failed to shut down the valve to an oil storage tank when the refinery was preparing to be shut down in the 2007 flood, he said.
The 2007 flood through the refinery complex and the east side of Coffeyville was different than the previous record-setting flood, which took place in 1943, he said. That’s because residents in the east side of Coffeyville were able to return to their properties and clean up their flood-damaged homes.
“It’s a matter of muddy water from 1943 compared to oily water in 2007,” said Rathbun.
As a result of the oil contamination in the flood water, homes and businesses in the vicinity of the refinery were inflicted with heavy damages and financial loss, he said.
The property owners claimed they were owed damages caused by “loss of their homes, businesses or livestock crops; loss of income, profits or earnings due to damaged businesses; remediation and removal costs; and annoyance, inconvenience and loss of peace of mind.”
The property owners originally sought actual damages in excess of almost $4.4 million as well as any punitive damages.
Lee M. Smithyman and Veronica Dersch of the Overland Park law firm of Smithyman and Zakoura, Chartered, represented Coffeyville Resources in the lawsuit.
In a companion lawsuit filed by another property owner against Coffeyville Resources, a U.S. District Magistrate Judge Kenneth G. Gale has set a May 2011 jury trial date in the lawsuit filed by RBK Manufacturing, JC Pump Co., LLC and J.D. Cook, Inc., against Coffeyville Resources.
Gregory L. Vowell, representing the three above-mentioned businesses, filed the lawsuit in October 2009 in which he claims Coffeyville Resources negligently released about 90,000 gallons of crude oil and other pollutants into the Verdigris River as flood levels were rising in July 2007.
Vowell is seeking $205,655.59 in damages and business interruption at RBK Manufacturing and $4.3 million in damages and lost profits at J.D. Cook/JC Pump Co., LLC.
Vowell also is seeking punitive damages against Coffeyville Resources.
Meanwhile, Coffeyville Resources does not deny the release of almost 90,000 gallons of crude petroleum products into the flood water in the wake of the emergency shutdown of the Coffeyville refinery on July 1, 2007. The company took steps to remediate the situation by paying for the clean-up of affected properties. However, Coffeyville Resources claims that some of the petroleum contamination on the RBK Manufacturing, J.D. Cook/JC Pump Co., properties were caused by gasoline and other petroleum storage tanks located near those businesses and do not necessarily contain the “fingerprint” of the oil stored from the Coffeyville refinery.
Coffeyville Resources also claims that Vowell denied admittance by environmental remediation crews to clean-up the businesses and that the businesses did not reopen because of other issues unrelated to the flood clean-up and environmental remediation.
Attorneys for all parties are seeking a jury trail in federal court to resolve the matter.
