State demands Maryland Parkway pollution cleanup, reimbursement

Published Monday, May 4, 2009 | 6:48 p.m.

Updated Tuesday, May 5, 2009 | 10:58 a.m.

Cleaners’ chemical lingers in water, soil (9-29-08)

Residents can call the state Division of Environmental Protection with questions or concerns about the pollution from the Al Phillips site. The number is 486-0975.

Dry cleaning plant

A Nevada agency on Monday sued several businesses and landowners it says are responsible for pollution from a dry cleaning plant on Maryland Parkway, demanding they clean up the pollution and reimburse the state for its costs to deal with contaminated air and groundwater in the affected area.

The state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, Division of Environmental Protection, filed suit in U.S. District Court against Maryland Square Shopping Center LLC; trustees of the Herman Kishner Trust, and individuals and companies associated with the bankrupt Al Phillips the Cleaners Inc.

The suit is part of the long-running response to the pollution, which was discovered in 2000 and also resulted in nearby residents last year suing the same defendants and others in the same court.

Jill LuFrano, spokeswoman for the state Division of Environmental Protection, said the lawsuit is part of the process of identifying the extent of the pollution and cleaning it up. She noted the process has been delayed by the bankruptcy of Al Phillips.

The suit, filed by Deputy Attorney General William Frey, says the dry cleaning solvent PCE used at the Al Phillips site, 3528 Maryland Parkway, has spread more than 4,000 feet in a plume eastward past the Boulevard Mall, underneath a residential neighborhood and past the Las Vegas National Golf Course property off of Desert Inn Road. The Al Phillips business operated at the Maryland Square site from 1969 to 2000.

Because some of the chemical has volatized into vapor, the state has been working to protect the health of residents in the area, the suit said.

"Concentrations of PCE in the groundwater plume continue to be present at (levels) ... underneath the residential neighborhood ... more than 200 times the (federal drinking water standard). This is a significant degradation of waters of the state. Addressing the contamination will require an assessment of the extent and magnitude of the contamination, completion of a feasibility study, risk assessment and pilot testing for a groundwater cleanup remedy, the design and implementation of a remedy to clean up groundwater and PCE-contaminated soils at the former (Al Phillips) property, and provisions for maintenance and repair of mitigation systems installed by the division in certain residences located above the sub-surface plume,'' the suit said, adding the state has spent some $266,000 on the project so far.

"The division requests a mandatory injunction requiring defendants, and each of them, to: complete an assessment of the extent and magnitude of the contamination resulting from releases from the former (Al Phillips) property that is approved by the division; monitor groundwater; submit timely reports; submit a corrective action plan for soil and groundwater; and implement the corrective action plan approved by the division or as approved by the division with modification,'' the suit says.

In the meantime, discovery is under way in a separate suit filed in November against many of the same defendants by residents who say they have been subjected to threats from the pollution. The discovery process may take a year and could be followed by a trial if a settlement isn't reached. In that case, the defendants have generally denied liability, asserted others are responsible for the problem, said the residents have no standing to sue since the state and federal governments are addressing the problem, and are asserting that the residents have not been damaged by the pollution.

"To the extent that any substances are alleged to be present or beneath the plaintiffs' properties, such substances do not substantially or permanently interfere with plaintiffs' use and enjoyment of the property or constitute or create an imminent or substantial endangerment," said a filing by Maryland Square Shopping Center LLC and the Herman Kishner Trust, one of the landowners.

Al Marquis, the attorney for the trust that owned the land when Al Phillips operated there, said Monday's lawsuit was expected and should help the involved parties speed up the process of identifying the extent of the pollution and coming up with a cleanup plan.

He said the trust as a landlord was not responsible for the pollution and didn't know Al Phillips was polluting the water when Al Phillips operated at the site.

Still, he said, the trust has already done the responsible thing by spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on monitoring wells and that samples from these wells show the pollution levels in the water are stable or declining.

He said there is no immediate threat to the health of the residents in the area, since the affected water is 15 to 19 feet deep and is not used for drinking water; and that it's unclear whether the chemical detected in the air of some of the affected homes is actually coming from the contaminated water.

"There is no immediate health risk. It's not a crisis," he said.

The trust, he said, will continue to assert claims against the Al Phillips parties in bankruptcy court.

It's unclear if insurers for the trust or the Al Phillips parties will cover any of the monitoring or cleanup costs. Marquis said the trust's insurers are paying for its defense in the residents' lawsuit, but with a reservation of rights -- meaning they have not agreed they are responsible for the liability at issue.

Discussion: 7 comments so far…

By loveywentworth

5/6/09 at 8:53 a.m.

Suggest removal

WOW....After knowing of the pollution for NINE years the state has actually decided to do SOMETHING? Maybe now we can actually get our air tested more than ONCE! The NDEP conducted ONE test in our homes...One time. With a sampling cannister in ONE Room! They have never come back to test again. I guess they can draw all the correct conclusions from a single test. AMAZING!
It makes me feel soooooo safe knowing that they are "Watching out for our health"
Bologna.
Why do the folks in California, NY and North Carolina all have the venting systems in their homes...similar situations with a plume of PCE under their homes and readings FAR LESS than the amounts found in our air. Also, when the STATE says it was discovered in 2000 (which is bad enough) Living on the golf course we have found some records that they knew of the PCE contamination as early as 1998, and there is some documentation going back as far as 1988 that stated there was indications of Chemical contamination.
WHAT TOOK SO LONG????
What about the families that purchased homes after the States "discovery", but before they ANNOUNCED to the public of the contamination.
ABOUT THREE YEARS OF KNOWING! A fact that would have influenced a choice in purchasing.
A material fact that was simply...left out.
GOOD FOR YOU STATE! get your money back from the responsible parties! Take care of yourself!
This action makes it appear that you care about the "throw away" community of Paradise Palms.
The whole thing is a huge mess!
Has it ever been mentioned that PCE was found in the deep aquifer under the golf course???
Isn't the deep water the same water being used to "water the lawn" The thought of people possibly breathing in the water vapor containing PCE isnt pleasant.
What about the odd clusters of cancer in that area.
Blood disorders and kidney problems. I am sure it can be explained too.
Poor diet, bad genes, lifestyle....
Maybe someone should call LOIS GIBBS.
Would the STATE be suing now....if the homeowners did not band together????? Or would we have been just left to quietly rot away??? and forgotten?
THE STATE HAD AN OPPORTUNITY and an OBLIGATION to the homeowners in that area. NOTHING has been done to clean the contamination. NINE YEARS!
By loveywentworth

5/6/09 at 8:56 a.m.

Suggest removal

Way to go! A little to late to be saving face now. Oh yea... there is a contaminated well on Geronimo, and one on Cochise. Why haven't the homeowners been notified that they are on top of contaminated wells????? Oh yea, it takes three years of sitting on the information. Like they did to the folks on the west side of Spencer.
Irresponsible!
Every home over THE CONAMINATED PLUME should have a venting system. EVERY ONE OF THEM. I would rather be SAFE THAN SORRY.
And what happens when the EPA rules on PCE vapor intrusion amounts allowed in homes??? What happens if it is less than the 32 micrograms the state is using????? All indications are that it will be less....far less. Then What?
OOOPS we are sorry, we chose a number that was at the high end....our bad!
The NDEP must be using their crystal balls to look into the future of the homes, by using a single air test in 2007 for some. And an "Action level" of 32

Shame on all of you!
By loveywentworth

5/6/09 at 9:44 a.m.

Suggest removal

Also the comment in the above news report....

"The homeowners haven't been damaged by the pollution...."

Well, owning a piece of property in an area known to be contaminated....sounds like damage to me.

Ask a couple of the neighbors that bought in that neighborhood...

Property values, unknown vapor intrusion levels,
Venting systems that don't work!

Just because they aren't covered in festering sores or losing their hair, eyesight, or having their limbs falling off...doesn't mean they haven't been damaged.

There IS damage....just the fact of living over the stuff is damage enough.

Once again....if you go over the speed limit in that neighborhood, you could get a ticket, and have to pay or suffer the consequences.

Go ahead and DUMP a Known Cancer Causing chemical under everyones home....pollute the environment and put lives at risk....and nothing happens.
At least for Nine years.

Get off your donkey and start cleaning the stuff up.

A lot of us don't want to live over LAS VEGAS's newest attraction. The Plume of Doom!
By Linda_in_Vegas

5/6/09 at 11:30 a.m.

Suggest removal

Has anyone noticed, that since we've been in this Recession/Depression, that everyone is suing someone?
By loveywentworth

5/6/09 at 3:14 p.m.

Suggest removal

If court action didn't happen....we would be sitting on toxic vapors for the rest of our lives. It is a sad day when the people in government look the other way, because it messes with their budgets. Why do you think that only a few homes in the neighborhood have venting systems?? is it because the levels were too high?
Almost every home in that neighborhood that has been tested is well over the EPA "action" levels determined safe by CA NY NC TX NJ etc etc etc.
The state didn't want to spend anything on a bunch of throw away homeowners.
Sometimes when you get your back up against the wall....you will fight for what is right!
We didn't ask for Al Philips to spill his toxic waste....we just ask that they clean the stuff up.
Hopes and dreams and a lot of money is going down the tubes here. How do you sell a house in the middle of ones that have venting systems??? The homeowners could get sued because of this.
Trying to find out just how toxic this place is...
is a nightmare.....
With the NDEP talking out of both sides of its mouth now...
They have to say we are not in danger...because that is what they said from the beginning.

Private tests along the Golf Course homes are being conducted. As are homes in the most toxic areas of the Plume. It will be a very sad day when the numbers dont jive!

It isn't inexpensive to have your air tested thouroughly. Unlike the single cannisters the NDEP used.
The type of air sampling done should have been conducted no less than 30 times in a year to determine what is going on in a home.
Once doesn't cut it.
Heat, humidity, rainfall, airconditioning, barometric pressure can all have an influence.

I guess we should be lucky that they even went as far as testing our air once!

This news article is being hand delivered to all of the owners on the golf course....

We need to have our air tested! The folks west of spencer need their air tested each month too!

And btw...homeowners. Did you know a house on Ottawa sold for less than 80,000.00

What about a tax break STATE?

Or maybe we should each pay a little extra for the honor of living over a toxic dump.

WELCOME NEW HOMEBUYERS TO LAS VEGAS!

Lois Gibbs has been contacted.