Neodesha Residents Take on Oil Giant BP in Court

Neodesha Residents Take on Oil Giant BP in Court



November 2007 
 The city of Neodesha is small, 
just 2,800 residents, but it is taking on oil giant BP in court in an 
effort to win hundreds of millions of dollars in damages for contamination 
of the city's groundwater with cancer-causing chemicals. 
From 1897 to 1970 a petroleum refinery operated in the southeastern Kansas 
town of Neodesha. The former refinery is owned by BP, formerly Amoco Oil 
Company, formerly Standard Oil Company. Operations at the facility 
included crude distillation, catalytic cracking, platinum reforming, and 
steam generation. 
Neodesha now says it wants more than $423 million in damages, less than 
half of the $1 billion the city sought when it originally filed the 
lawsuit March 29, 2004 in Wilson County District Court. 
The lawsuit alleges that the refinery had poisoned the groundwater and 
soil and that its managers covered up the pollution to avoid liability. 
The city's lawsuit focuses on cleanup efforts at the site, which it says 
are inadequate, and the harm the pollution has done to property values and 
city revenues rather than on residents' health problems. 
 
For years, retired schoolteacher Lucille Campbell tried to draw attention 
to the health concerns related to the Neodesha Refinery. 
"It is alarming how many people have or have died of cancer," Campbell 
said. "Despite being a pretty little town in the country, Neodesha's death 
rate stays in the top four in the state." 
Campbell's organization, the Neodesha Environmental Awareness Team, has 
tried to raise public awareness about the site, but the refinery has not 
been added to the national Superfund List, and it remains a threat to 
public health. 
When refinery operations ceased in 1970, tanks, process equipment, and 
most of the structures were removed. A portion of the site was donated to 
the City of Neodesha and is being used as an industrial park with several 
businesses in operation. 
Following the closing of the refinery, many illnesses were reported 
throughout Neodesha. Investigations found groundwater contamination, 
including a plume of benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and xylene from the 
site into Neodesha. 
The plume affected residential areas, schools, churches, and business and 
industrial park areas. Testing has detected the contaminated groundwater 
plume beneath city hall, homes and schools. 
Campbell does not believe a lawsuit is the best way to handle the problem. 
"If they file a lawsuit," she says, "they can settle out of court, and the 
issue of the sick and dying would never be addressed." 
Many of the city's residents do not want the refinery site listed as a 
Superfund site even if that would mean federal government money and 
assistance for cleanup. They believe that declaring the refinery a 
Superfund site would create an irreversible "black eye," on Neodesha's 
public face. 
They want the company to compensate them for damaged groundwater and the 
state to oversee the cleanup. 
The state of Kansas has been involved in investigating the contamination. 
In June 2002, petroleum hydrocarbon materials were observed in two surface 
water drainage ditches and reported to the Kansas Department of Health and 
Environment, KDHE. 
One ditch is located downstream of an outfall of the City of Neodesha's 
stormwater sewer system which drains portions of the city's residential 
area and industrial park. 
Soil samples from this ditch indicated elevated concentrations of lead and 
hydrocarbon odors have been detected in stormwater runoff flowing in this 
ditch after rainfall events, the state agency said. 
A second ditch is located south of the industrial park where one of two 
stormwater sewer lines has been diverted to allow discharge to the surface 
near two of five settling basins had formerly received stormwater runoff 
and liquid wastes from the refinery for treatment. 
A soil sample from this ditch indicated elevated concentrations of lead 
and mercury, according to KDHE. 
BP Products North America admits in court documents that its former 
refinery had incidental, non-negligent leaks, but the company is fighting 
allegations of fraudulent concealment and other allegations made by the 
plaintiffs. 
BP blames most of the pollution beyond the refinery property on a lighting 
strike in the late 1960s that struck one of its storage tanks, causing an 
explosion and fire. 
The company says chemicals from the former refinery pose no health risk to 
Neodesha residents. 
A jury is hearing evidence now in an Erie, Kansas courtroom and the trial 
is expected to last several more weeks. 

---