United States v. Seymour Recycling Corp.

618 F. Supp. 1
District Court, S.D. Indiana·Decided March 27, 1984·No. No. IP 80-457-C·Published·Cited by 2 cases

Opinion

ENTRY AND ORDER

STECKLER, District Judge.

The above-captioned matter came before the Court for a ruling on a motion for leave to intervene and to be heard on the disbursement of funds, filed by 94 of the 101 homes and/or businesses situated in a subdivision in Jackson County, Indiana, known as the Snyde Acres Subdivision. The motion to intervene was filed on October 6, 1983, and on November 21, 1983, the State of Indiana filed its response to the motion; the United States’ response was filed on December 13, 1983. Each response stated, essentially, a neutral position on the intervention; the United States noted that the Snyde Acres residents were not technically intervenors, but the United States approved of a hearing on the matter of the requested disbursement.

On January 16, 1984, the Court granted the motion to intervene. By entry, also dated January 16, 1984, the matter was scheduled for a hearing on February 27,

1984. The United States, on February 24, 1984, filed a Memorandum concerning petitioners’ motion to be heard on the disbursement of funds for an alternate water system for Snyde Acres.

On February 27,1984, the Court conducted a hearing on the requested disbursement of funds for a water system for Snyde Acres. Counsel who appeared during the hearing were:

Duge Butler, Esquire, for intervenors Ronald K. Lambring, Esquire, for the City of Seymour.
Robert K. Johnson, Esquire, for the State of Indiana.
[4]*4Roger Field, Esquire, for the United States.
Robert D. Daniel, Esquire, for the United States.
Charles Goodloe, Jr., Esquire, for the United States.

In addition to the attorneys listed above, Ms. Beverly Kush, a United States Environmental Protection Agency engineer, who was assigned as on-scene coordinator during the surface cleanup at Seymour Recycling, attended the hearing. John Bottorff, John D. Roberts, Michael Sorensen and Keith W. Bossung, all residents of the Seymour area, attended the hearing. The hearing was also attended by a large contingent of interested citizens, and by numerous news media personnel.

The evidence of the intervenors was received; Messers. Bottorff, Roberts, Sorensen, and Bossung testified. The respondents (plaintiff and defendants) offered no evidence. The United States relied on its response to the motion to intervene and its memorandum of February 24, 1984.

Having considered the motion of the intervenors and the responses to the motion; having thoroughly studied the February 24, 1984, memorandum and attachment filed by the United States; having carefully considered the evidence offered during the hearing on this matter; and, having evaluated the materially pertinent statutes, the Court does now submit its ruling.

The Court hereby adopts the historical recitation of the applicable facts concerning the above-captioned matter, as recited in a memorandum entered on December 15, 1982, 554 F.Supp. 1334.

After the Court entered the consent decree on December 15, 1982, (which provided for a surface cleanup at the Seymour Recycling site), the United States collected approximately Three Million Dollars ($3,000,-000.00), pursuant to covenants between the plaintiffs and local officials and certain of the shippers and transporters of waste to the Seymour site. These funds were deposited in the Registry of the Court, pursuant to an August 10, 1983, motion filed by the United States and the Court’s order approving the motion.

The Court finds that there are approximately 101 homes and/or businesses in Snyde Acres, a subdivision located in Jackson County, Indiana. Snyde Acres is situated approximately 1,000 feet north of the acreage at Freeman Field, in Jackson County, which was the site of the Seymour Recycling Corporation.

The businesses and homes of the Snyde Acres Subdivision use well water; these wells draw water from the shallow aquifer, below the surface, and have a depth of approximately 18 to 30 feet. The United States has conducted preliminary studies of the soil and groundwater contamination around the Seymour Recycling site. Tests have also been made of the wells used by Snyde Acres residents. Tests of water from the wells in the Snyde Acres Subdivision indicate that such wells are not now contaminated by chemicals from the Seymour Recycling site; however, the preliminary scientific and engineering studies of the soil and the shallow aquifer around the Seymour Recycling site permit the inference that the wells could become contaminated by the movement of chemicals from the site.

The preliminary study, which was completed in February, 1982, has documented the contamination of the shallow aquifer that passes under the Seymour Recycling site. The study confirms that groundwater in the shallow aquifer flows to the North-Northwest of the site, in the direction of the Snyde Acres subdivision and other nearby residences. The study documented the release, from the Seymour Recycling site, of such hazardous substances as benzene, phthalates, trichlorethane and other organic compounds. The record before the Court clearly supports a finding that there has been a release of hazardous substances from the Seymour Recycling site that may present an imminent and substantial endangerment to the public health or the welfare of persons who use private wells that draw groundwater from the shallow aquifer downgradient of the Seymour Recycling [5]*5site. Groundwater monitoring by U.S. EPA and the State of Indiana, however, has not shown that an immediate danger exists to people using the wells in the Snyde Acres area.

Irrespective of the fact that the Indiana State Board of Health and the United States Environmental Protection Agency have tested wells in and around the Snyde Acres Subdivision for contamination for several months, and such wells do not, at this time, show contamination, the residents of the Snyde Acres have a fear that the wells may become contaminated; some residents do not, now, use the water from their wells, except for bathing. The testimony established that some residents have not used their well water for drinking purposes for more than one year. The potential threat is, therefore, imminent within the meaning of the applicable statutory provisions because the groundwater in the shallow aquifer flows in the direction of Snyde Acres residences and the contaminants can be expected eventually to reach those residences.

Keith W. Bossung, the manager of Indiana-American Water Company, Inc. — Seymour District (hereafter Indiana-American), has testified that Indiana-American services the City of Seymour, and has sufficient capacity to serve Snyde Acres. Specifically, the evidence through the testimony of Mr. Bossung established:

“It is my understanding that there now is evidence that approximately 101 residential dwellings may initially be served from this proposed water main extension. Based on 1983 historical data, the average residential customer in Seymour utilized approximately 54,000 gallons of water per year. Anticipating the addition of 101 residential customers in the Snyde Acres area, the additional projected water usage for this area would be 5,454,000 gallons per year or an average of approximately 15,000 gallons per day. 1983 average daily pumpage was 1,368 million gallons. With the addition of the Snyde Acres customers a projected average daily pumpage of 1.383 million gallons could be anticipated.

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United States v. Seymour Recycling Corp., 618 F. Supp. 1 (S.D. Ind. 1984).

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