Could use some legal advice for my dear old mom (1 Viewer)

[NutterButter]

Mom is converting to natural gas.   She gets her underground oil tank removed and they find a leak.    She brings in company to drill soil samples around the leak to find the extent of it.  Some of the oil apparently made its ways onto the neighbor's property; his property starts about 10ft from where the tank was buried.   In NJ, the state will pay for something like 80% of the clean up but its a pretty lengthy process before the funds are distributed and the work can begin.  Total cost of the cleanup is something like $260k.      Neighbor is being a pita and has hired a lawyer to get my mom to clean it up now.  The lawyer that he hired seems to be strong arming her demanding that she not only pay for his client's property clean up but also his legal fees.   My mom doesn't have nearly enough money to cover the cost of the cleanup while waiting for the state to reimburse.   I told her that at the very least go get a free consultation (you guys do that sort of thing right?) from a few lawyers and see what they have to say but she's really dragging her feet and driving herself insane thinking about the worst case scenario.  To complicate matters, the neighbor also had his tank removed with a leak like 20 years ago  and the laws may have changed (mom is checking on this) with the extent of the cleanup verification that was required so who knows for sure if the oil on his property is even from my mom's tank.   Any advice the ffa legal beagles may have would be greatly appreciated.  

 

[Man of Constant Sorrow]

To complicate matters, the neighbor also had his tank removed with a leak like 20 years ago  and the laws may have changed (mom is checking on this) with the extent of the cleanup verification that was required so who knows for sure if the oil on his property is even from my mom's tank.   Any advice the ffa legal beagles may have would be greatly appreciated.  

How close to his property was the tank? 

Do you have access to public water maps - especially underground water flow?

Also, I am assuming that it was an underground storage tank.

 

[NutterButter]

How close to his property was the tank? 

Do you have access to public water maps - especially underground water flow?

Also, I am assuming that it was an underground storage tank.

Really close.  I'd say ~10ft.  Not sure about the water maps beyond what can be found on the web.  Yes, its an underground tank.

 

[Man of Constant Sorrow]

Really close.  I'd say ~10ft.  Not sure about the water maps beyond what can be found on the web.  Yes, its an underground tank.

OK. That's not good. If the leak is significant, I don't see much hope in water maps helping much.

Thus, do you have access to the soil sample test results? (I am assuming tests have been done.) Who took them for your mom?

Also, if your neighbor had to submit data publicly for his tank removal, find a way to get it. Call the local government  information line for help in determining where those records would be. It may be available online as well.

 

[Man of Constant Sorrow]

OK. That's not good. If the leak is significant, I don't see much hope in water maps helping much.

I need to clarify this.

Water maps won't help in keeping his property out of the equation, but - they can still help (or hurt) in determining the potential area impacted. In other words, did it get on his property ... or, has it spread far into his property.

 

[Cowboysfan8]

260k?!?!

Someone should be able to haul away half the neighborhood and backfill it with clean fill for a lot less than that. Wow

Good luck NB

 

[cheeseypoof]

@NutterButter

I work for the NJDEP, but not in that program.

Check these links out:

https://www.nj.gov/dep/srp/unregulatedtanks/

https://www.nj.gov/dca/divisions/codes/publications/pdf_bulletins/b_95-1b.pdf

 The phone number for the unregulated storage tank group is (609) 633-0544.  I don’t know anyone in that group so I don’t have a contact name.  Good luck.

 

[NutterButter]

OK. That's not good. If the leak is significant, I don't see much hope in water maps helping much.

Thus, do you have access to the soil sample test results? (I am assuming tests have been done.) Who took them for your mom?

Also, if your neighbor had to submit data publicly for his tank removal, find a way to get it. Call the local government  information line for help in determining where those records would be. It may be available online as well.

I don't think there's any doubt that some of the oil got onto the neighbor's property.   Some environmental cleanup crew is the one that took the samples.  There is something peculiar about them from what my mom told me.   They measure the concentration of oil in the soil at various locations on a scale of say 1-100.   In my my mom's case, ten feet from the tank (going towards by neighbor's property) it was a 25, 20 ft it was a 12 and then 30 feet is was back to a 23 (this is all 2nd hand info so not entirely accurate but it gives you an idea of the peculiarity that was found).   Now either just based on something having to do with the land, the oil just happened to pool at that 30 foot point or possibly its oil from my neighbor's tank leak that wasn't fully remediated.   My mom requested the cleanup info from my neighbor's lawyer but in the mean time, it looks like @cheeseypoof provided some good info to allow us to do some digging on our own.

The extent of the leakage or who's responsible isn't really the big issue at the moment.   The big issue is determining how much authority the neighbor has to force my mom to begin this cleanup prior to ascertaining the funds from the state.  Prior to my neighbor getting involved a few weeks ago, my mom was prepared to wait for the state to provide her with their share of the cost (a process that could take many months), contribute her share and have the entire cleanup performed regardless which house was responsible for what.   This was going to cost my mom ~$60k which for a 71 year old woman that just started retirement a year ago, was already causing her a lot of grief.   She had already come to accept this and wasn't looking for any form of financial assistance from the neighbor even though she did have some suspicions about the source of some of this contamination.   Now this neighbor who is a real richard (suitably, his name just so happens to be Richard) has decided to force my mom to begin this cleanup sooner instead of waiting for this whole process to take its natural course.

 

[NutterButter]

@NutterButter

I work for the NJDEP, but not in that program.

Check these links out:

https://www.nj.gov/dep/srp/unregulatedtanks/

https://www.nj.gov/dca/divisions/codes/publications/pdf_bulletins/b_95-1b.pdf

 The phone number for the unregulated storage tank group is (609) 633-0544.  I don’t know anyone in that group so I don’t have a contact name.  Good luck.

All this time, I didn't realize you were a fellow garden stater.  Thanks a lot for this info.   My mom requested this info from the neighbor's lawyer, but its good to know the method to possibly find this out for ourselves.  

 

[NutterButter]

260k?!?!

Someone should be able to haul away half the neighborhood and backfill it with clean fill for a lot less than that. Wow

Good luck NB

The entirety of the clean up is quite a process.   The tank being so close to the house, a lot of the contaminated soil is actually under the house.   So they essentially need to support the foundation while they remove the dirt under the house and then backfill new clean dirt.   It sounds like quite a project.