A state agency expects to pay nearly $1 million this week as part of a settlement in a lawsuit over a gasoline spillthat prompted a Yellville grocery store to close for almost two weeks in 2011.
The money paid to Harps Food Stores will come from the state’s Petroleum StorageTank Trust Fund, which has a $1 million cap for damages that may be paid to one or more property owners affected by a spill from a tank on neighboring property.
The payment will be the first one in the fund’s 24-year history to equal the maximum amount allowed for such a claim, Joe Hoover, chief of the Department of Environmental Quality’s Regulated Storage Tanks Division, said Wednesday.
“The fund provides coverage for these types of damages,and this particular claim was one that actually exceeded the limit of coverage,” Hoover said.
Under the Feb. 7 settlement of the lawsuit in Marion County Circuit Court, Harrison-based Petromark Inc., the owner of the gas station where the spill happened, is responsible for a $7,500 deductible, and the fund will pay the grocery store chain the remaining $992,500.
Petromark also agreed to pay Harps an additional $400,000.
The lawsuit was dismissed Feb. 20 in light of the settlement. Hoover said the state expects to issue a check to Harps on Friday.
Established in 1989, the fund receives money from a 0.3-cent-per-gallon fee on wholesale motor-fuel sales. Last year, the fund received more than $7.2 million and paid claims totaling more than $4.8 million.
Previously, the record for damage payments from the fund was $874,945, which was divided among several property owners affected by a spill in 2000 from a DM Petroleum facility in Harrison.
Environmental Quality Department Director Teresa Marks approved the settlement with Harps, finding that it was in the interest of the fund, Hoover said.
He said the leak came from a White Oak Station underground fuel storage tank and prompted the evacuation of the store after people smelled gasoline inside.
According to the lawsuit, which was filed on the same day as the settlement, the vapors were discovered about 5 p.m., Nov. 8, 2011.
Firefighters asked store employees to turn off refrigeration equipment until the store had been ventilated, the lawsuit says. The next day, the state Department of Health condemned the bulk of the store’s inventory, the lawsuit says.
An environmental contractor hired by the grocery store discovered gasoline mixed with water in a tunnel, or chase, under the grocery store and pumped it out, the lawsuit says.
The store then rerouted its refrigeration lines, modified its return-air ductwork and filled the chase with concrete, the lawsuit says.
The store reopened Nov. 21, 2011.
The lawsuit sought compensation for the loss of inventory, lost sales and the expense of responding to the spill and modifying the store.
Representatives of Harps and Petromark didn’t return calls seeking comment on the settlement Wednesday.
Petromark’s cleanup of the site, which is also being paid for with money from the storage-tank fund, is ongoing and has cost more than $180,000 so far, Hoover said. The fund will reimburse an owner of a fuel storage tank for up to $1,492,500 in cleanup costs after the owner pays a $7,500 deductible.
Northwest Arkansas, Pages 9 on 02/28/2013