Civil Suit in Houston TX

[wendy's wash]

Is any one out there being sued for their mud that was hauled and dumped legally or ever was sued. Well after talking with an attorney. I was told that I am responsible for the mud from cradle to grave. Well the good news is that this mess will probably put me in the grave.
If you would of told me after 32 years of busting butt with a car wash, I might never have bought one.

 

[robert roman]

Hold your horses, Tex.

Yes, if hazardous waste is generated on a property, the property owner has cradle to grave responsibility unless the owner legally transfers the liability.

For pollution to qualify as hazardous, it must meet definition of hazardous material (i.e. gasoline) and detectable at some threshold.

So, there must be testing like soil boring and measurement (lab analysis).

You can have mud tested. If mud contains no hazardous material or detected amount that exceeds threshold, there is no hazard.

On the other hand, if mud did not or did contain hazardous material and was dumped without manifest from 3rd party, your fly would be open.

 

[Earl Weiss]

RJR has pointed you in the right direction.

1. Are you currently being sued?
2. If so, by a private part or government agency?
3. Are they alleging violation of state or federal laws.
4. Since you say it was "dumped Legally" what is their theory of recovery.

As RJR said the distinction of Hazardous vs non Hazardous waste is important. Based upon reports of various wash waste it typically is not hazardous. If they claim otherwise your counsel should request test results or prehaps even samples for split testing.

As wet waste it may, depending on applicable regs fall into what is considered "Special" but non Hazardous which has different disposal requirements.

 

[wendy's wash]

sued-yes
sued by government hired attorney.
violation-federal
clean up site per epa laws.
dump site abandoned.
epa called in to assign a clean up group.
no t-clip test required at time of dump. 2003,2005.
still to date no test required to haul or dump.

 

[Earl Weiss]

I feel your pain. Even Bill gates who has FU money says being sued by the govt was no fun. Even if you are right the cost of fighting is often prohibitive. Sometimes they will settle for a lot less than they are claiming. So, it seems your options are:

1. Try to settle ASAP to conserve costs.
2. Have your counsel take a close look at the allegations and law. If they are claiming it's "Hazardous waste" and base your alleged liability on that (As opposed to another theory where characterization is not relevant) and you have the resources to fight it get tests of your pit dirt to show it's not hazardous and ask for any info they have which supports any claim they have that your dirt was hazardous. Sadly, the right lawyer for this job is likely expensive to hire. The neighborhood attorney may not be the best candidate for the job.

 

[6t7gto]

How do they know it is your mud?
When I was in the trash business, I was named in a lawsuit involving clean up of a landfill.
I had never dumped at that site.
Seems they were naming every hauler in Ohio.

 

[soapy]

Years ago when I was in the tire business I contracted with a licensed waste oil hauler to remove used oil. They only picked up a few hundred gallons. They eventually went bankrupt and it was found out that they were actually taking the oil out to the desert and illegally dumping it. The government went after anyone who had paid to use this company. We had a small amount of the overall amount and we were offered to pay a flat fee and be absolved of all liability or we could go to court and if found guilty we would have a much higher bill. We took the lesser amount and paid the up front offer.

 

[robert roman]

“sued by government, violation-federal clean up site per epa laws, dump site abandoned...”

So, did you knowingly or unknowingly buy contaminated property?

 

[rph9168]

I agree that it might be best to see if you can get some sort of reasonable settlement if possible. I would try to find out as much as I could before getting legal advice but you will eventually need a lawyer. A company I did some business years ago was brought to court regarding several gallons of their product found in an illegal dump they did some business with. They had no idea the company was dumping illegally but the government was attempting to divide the cost among all the companies that used this company evenly - regardless of how much was dumped. I forget the amount they were looking for but it was quite staggering. They were one of the first to negotiate the cost down to less than $10,000 so they took the deal. Later on some of the companies that fought and lost ended up filing bankruptcy. Not saying this might be the case but I would take the suit very seriously.