Puls, Taylor & Woodson Sue Chevron Pipe Line Company for Polluting Fresh Water Source

Representing 13 Parker County families, Fort Worth law firm Puls, Taylor & Woodson, LLP, has filed suit against Chevron Pipe Line Company alleging that Chevron dumped toxic and carcinogenic chemicals at its pipeline booster/pump station on FM1189 east of Brock and that the chemicals have migrated into the soil and groundwater sources of nearby farms and ranches.

The suit, filed February 22 in State District Court (No. 49712, 43rd Judicial District) at the Parker County Court House in Weatherford, seeks unspecified damages. It charges that petroleum by-products and suspected toxic carcinogens -- benzene, toluene, ethyl benzene and total xylenes (BTEX) and methyl tert-butyl ether (MTBE) -- have been found in soil and groundwater under both the booster/pump station and plaintiffs' adjacent properties. Leaks from boosters, sumps, pumps, swab traps and oil water separators on or under the station are cited as sources of the pollution.

The contaminated area overlies the Twin Mountains aquifer, classified by the Texas Natural Resources Conservation Commission as a major aquifer and fresh water source for the area. The local watershed drains into a tributary of the Brazos River.

Chevron also is charged with repeatedly violating Federal and State environmental laws including the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act, the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act and the Texas Water Code.

Records from monitoring wells show that MTBE was first detected in water samples collected in November 1995. Samples collected in June 2001 at a well on one plaintiff's property showed an MTBE concentration approximately 30 times higher than allowed under TNRCC guidelines.

Source: Puls, Taylor & Woodson, LLP