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Refinery settles Newcastle lawsuit
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FarkWyoming Refining Co. has agreed to pay an undisclosed sum to 47 people who said they were sickened in 2002 when the company's Newcastle, Wyo., oil refinery accidentally released 20 tons of silica catalyst powder into the atmosphere.
Newcastle Action Group, a local environmental organization, announced the settlement in a press release this week.
Attorneys for the plaintiffs were not available for comment. Citing confidentiality agreements, officials at Denver-based Wyoming Refining and its parent company, Hermes Consolidated, declined comment.
According to the suit, filed August 2006 in U.S. District Court in Wyoming, the plaintiffs were residents of Newcastle when the accident occurred on March 25, 2002.
They alleged that they suffered a variety of physical and psychological reactions to the fine dust. Symptoms included asthma, headaches, respiratory disease, rashes, ulcers, eye infections and increased risk of cancer.
In the suit, the plaintiffs accused refinery owners of negligence, trespass, creating a nuisance and inflicting emotional distress.
At the time of the accident, refinery officials said a frozen valve was to blame for the release of the fine powder into the air. When it settled, the powder turned snow on the ground a light brown.
The silica catalyst, a clay-based powder, is used to refine crude oil into gasoline and diesel fuel. It contains small amounts of nickel and vanadium, both known to cause skin irritation. Tests at the time also showed the catalyst on the ground had levels of arsenic, a carcinogen, at 100 times the Environmental Protection Agency's regional residential standard for arsenic in soil.
Later tests by the Environmental Protection Agency showed levels of arsenic in the soil itself were within normal ranges.
Wyoming Refinery's legal troubles are not over, however. Another, more recent lawsuit against the company alleges that water in the Little Oil Creek drainage on nearby property has been contaminated by fuel products.
That suit was filed in October 2007 by the owners of a nearby Covenant Tack, Saddlery and Event Center. They alleged that the seepage was uncovered by a Realtor who was planning to list the property for sale. As a result of the contamination, they allege, the property can't be sold.
The Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality later confirmed that there was a smell of fuel and an oily sheen in the drainage area.
In its response, Hermes Consolidated denies that the type of fuel found in the drainage was refined during the time that Hermes operated the refinery.
That case is pending in U.S. District Court in Wyoming.
Contact Dan Daly at 394-8421 or dan.daly@rapidcityjournal.com
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