Wyoming-based Sinclair Oil Corp. has sought relief in connection to a gasoline spill east of Mesa Verde National Park.
Filed Feb. 6, the five-page complaint asks the Montezuma County District Court to instruct Raymond McCarty, the property owner, to explain why the company's trademarked symbols shouldn't be removed from the premises. The company maintains it owns and is entitled to its dinosaur-themed signage, which is valued at $3,000.
In addition to recovering its logos, Sinclair officials indicate in the complaint that its business reputation is being harmed because of billboards that McCarty erected after an oil remediation dispute.
McCarty's ads read, "Massive Petroleum Spill - Toxic Site" with skull-and-crossbones "poison" icons and "This Toxic Mess Brought To You By State of Colorado," which help to fuel negative publicity for the company, the plaintiffs allege.
Annually, some 500,000 people visit Mesa Verde National Park, which is three miles west of the property in question.
Contained in the claim for relief, Boulder attorney Geraldine A. Brimmer states that the plaintiffs granted a 2010 contract to Cortez-based Fraley & Co. to sell Sinclair products at the now closed gas station. The contract, which expired in March 2014, required that Fraley officials return the company's signage within 10 days of termination.
According to the complaint, McCarty has refused Fraley officials access to the site to in order to remove Sinclair logos, which are adjacent to the toxic spill ads.
"They don't want to clean up the property," said McCarty in response to the claim.
Beleaguered at the lack of cleanup assistance from the Colorado Division of Oil and Public Safety (OPS), McCarty said he would continue his fight against the oil cartels.
"I'm going to hammer it as long as I can hammer it," McCarty told county officials last summer. "It's unjust."
The prolonged dispute involves three parcels of land at the former Wild Wild Rest Sinclair Gas station and convenience store, which was contaminated after a gasoline spill. The station closed in 2004, and in 2006, OPS deemed Fraley officials were responsible for removing fuel tanks on site, officials said.
According to McCarty, when the above-ground tanks were removed, residual fuels flowed back through gas lines and spilled out onto the land. McCarty has refused to vacate the premises to allow for proper cleanup.
In attempt to remedy the situation, Fraley & Co. hired engineering firm Souder, Miller & Associates Inc., which obtained a corrective action plan from OPS regulators in 2010, according to agency officials.
In a previous federal civil suit, a jury awarded McCarty $1 in damages, basically rejecting his claims that Fraley & Co. was responsible for the spill.
Mitigation would include removal of contaminated soil, recontouring the property and installing monitoring stations at an estimated cost to the state of $200,000, according to OPS officials.
McCarty said 26 monitoring wells were drilled on site, most of which pierced the Mancos Shale Layer. He said groundwater is now contaminated with 400 times the allowable limit of ethyl benzene and toluene.
tbaker@cortezjournal.com