Gunnison files lawsuit over leaking gasoline storage tanks

Gunnison Top Stop's inventory records from the state show a consistent pattern of fuel loss at the end of June. The statistical method used to report the inventory allowed a maximum discrepancy of 131 gallons for the month. In June, the inventory report shows a net loss of 154 gallons.

But the lawsuit alleges that more gasoline than that was actually lost in June, and that Wind River fudged the numbers to make the problem look not quite so bad, and then made up for it by beginning to record higher losses — by hundreds or even thousands of gallons — beginning in July.

Wind River never reported the numbers to the agency, even though by federal and state law significant changes such as that are automatically considered to be suspect leaks and need to be reported within 24 hours.

Rather than report the suspected leak, the lawsuit states, "They intentionally concealed it with the hope that it would not be discovered."

As a result of the gas leak, businesses have closed; several residents have either had to leave their homes or have had health problems, or both; private and city property has been destroyed because of both the initial leak and the subsequent remediation; and business have lost patronage, with the trickle-up effect that the city has lost sales-tax revenue.

The lawsuit seeks redress for those damages.

"To put this in perspective wearing my hat as the Gunnison City attorney," Stirba said, "the first phase of this was the remediation and cleanup. And now, after the taxpayers of the state of Utah have paid $1 million — and it's still ongoing — we believe the crisis has passed. Now it moves to phase two, which is the economic impact that we think was catastrophic, and also the health issues. The state fund is not designed to address those issues, which are being addressed in this lawsuit."

It is the second lawsuit to arise from the Gunnison Top Stop gas leak. In January, a prominent businesswoman, Lila Lee Christensen, owner of Lila Lee Apparel, filed suit against Wind River for losses at her business, which she had to close because of the leak.

In addition, the Utah Attorney General's Office is conducting a criminal investigation into Wind River's knowledge and actions regarding the gas leak.

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