October 31, 2003

The Department of Attorney General on behalf of the Department of Environmental Quality has filed a civil lawsuit against PETCO Petroleum Corporation, an Indiana Corporation, Exxon Mobil Corporation, and Jay D. Bergman, for the recovery of response activity costs incurred by the State of Michigan to plug and cleanup environmental contamination associated with 70 oil wells. The wells are located in Jackson and Calhoun Counties. The lawsuit requests that the defendants reimburse the state of Michigan for response activity costs incurred, in an amount not less than $3,900,000. The complaint also asks for the court to order the defendants to reimburse the state for the staff costs and attorney fees plus interest as provided pursuant to Part 201.

In July 1990, Jay Bergman and PETCO purchased and took over operations of the 70 oil wells and 22 associated oil storage facilities from Exxon. DEQ staff inspected the sites in 1991 and notified PETCO of their responsibility for the cleanup of contaminated soils and groundwater impacted by spills of crude oil and brine at the sites, including documented contamination of benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, total hydrocarbons, and chlorides, at levels in excess of the state cleanup standards, that had occurred when the sites were owned and operated by Exxon. In 1995, PETCO shut down and abandoned the oil wells and associated oil storage facilities. DEQ subsequently notified Exxon and PETCO of their obligations under Michigan law to undertake cleanup actions. PETCO entered into an administrative Consent Agreement with the DEQ in December 1998, but failed to undertake response activities necessary to bring the sites into compliance with Part 201 Environmental Remediation, and Part 615 Supervisor of Wells, of the Natural Resources and Environmental Protection Act, 1994 PA 451 as amended. Using state environmental bond funding the DEQ commenced well plugging and cleanup operations at the sites to halt further contamination.

Editor’s note: DEQ news releases are available on the department’s Internet home page at www.michigan.gov/deq.

Revised October 31, 2003 by Pat Watson