The Tribune

By AVA TURNQUEST

Tribune Chief Reporter

aturnquest@tribunemedia.net

A MARATHON family was offered $24,000 to give their home a “face lift” and asked to release and indemnify Rubis (Bahamas) following the 2012 underground gas spill at the service station at Robinson and Old Trail Roads, according to a sworn affidavit filed in the Supreme Court last month.

The affidavit was filed by Adrianne Munroe in support of Cable Bahamas’ application for interim injunctive relief to close the gas station on the grounds that it is unsafe.

Filed on March 24, it also supports previous claims by area residents that there has been no response from the government about remediation plans for the area, or the results of initial tests conducted to determine their level of exposure, and that no health assessments have been conducted to date.

Earlier this year, The Tribune put the health concerns of area residents to Minister of Health Dr Perry Gomez.

Dr Gomez acknowledged concerns over testing as valid, and directed the newspaper to speak with Chief Medical Officer Glen Beneby on the ministry’s involvement in the matter.

Phone messages and emails sent to Dr Beneby have not been returned and remain unanswered.

Last month, Minister of Environment Ken Dorsett and Marathon MP Jerome Fitzgerald confirmed that a town meeting had been planned to address the concerns of area residents; however, several residents told The Tribune that they had not received any information about the event to date.

Mrs Munroe, 56, deposed the affidavit on behalf of her 59-year-old husband Richard, and 30-year-old daughter Annie-Laurie Munroe as residents of 1 Grace Avenue at the time of the estimated 24,000-30,000 gallons of gas leak. The family has lived at the Marathon residence for more than 38 years, according to the court document.

The affidavit says the family was offered $400 per month for each well that was installed on their property for a 24-month period in a September 2014 meeting with Rubis officials. There are allegedly five product recovery/monitoring wells installed on the Munroe property.

Rubis officials named in the affidavit were Alejandro Sanin, general manager; Rochelle Moss, human resources manager; and Byron Ferguson, regional sales and marketing manager.

In the same meeting, Mrs Munroe said the family was also offered a payment of $24,000 for a “face lift” of their home.

“Mr Sanin then insisted that we sign a release and indemnify Rubis. We refused both offers and we also refused to sign the release and indemnity,” the affidavit continued.

“We then asked about Rubis’ liability to us for the damage caused to our home and for our pain and suffering. Mr Sanin responded stating that he cannot talk about liability and further stated that liability was for the Supreme Court to determine. Mr Sanin then referred us to Rubis’ lawyers Higgs & Johnson.”

Mrs Munroe explained that she contacted Rubis officials Byron Ferguson and Rochell Moss again sometime after the meeting, and demanded that the company evacuate her family due to health risks.

Cable Bahamas is suing Rubis and former operator Fiorente Management for up to $15 million in damages, alleging that their “negligence” resulted in its property, mainly its customer service building, being contaminated by the 2012 gasoline leak.

Rubis (Bahamas) and Fiorente Management are both resisting Cable Bahamas’ efforts to obtain a summary judgment against them, while blaming each other for the massive gasoline leak that sparked the initial claim.

In that claim, Cable Bahamas alleged that it had suffered from the “intermittent emission of gasoline fumes” from the Rubis station for five years with the first evacuation of the Cable Bahamas’ customer service building taking place on October 2, 2012. Fiorente representatives were said to have visited Cable Bahamas on that date, and knew of the problem, but two more evacuations occurred on December 7, 2012, and December 10, 2012.

Three further evacuations of Cable Bahamas’ customer service building occurred between January 10-12, 2013, with another shut down taking place on January 23. According to the claim, Cable Bahamas reconfigured the air conditioning system in the customer service building and “sealed” the property, only to be forced into another evacuation on January 25, 2013, over “the prevalent smell of gasoline fumes”. The final evacuation took place on January 26, 2013.

Both Cable Bahamas and Adrianne Munroe are represented by lawyer Fred Smith, QC.

In her affidavit, Mrs Munroe said that the family became aware that their fresh water wells and plumbing system had become contaminated with gasoline on February 24. That morning, water coming out of faucets had a “pungent and noxious odour of toxic gasoline fumes” that burned their eyes and nostrils and made them feel dizzy.

After contacting Rubis, Mrs Munroe said that she was put in contact with Baychem President Patrick Bain, who visited the home later that day. She said Mr Bain contacted the Water and Sewerage Corporation, who connected the family’s residential supply of potable water to the supply provided by WSC on the same day. According to the affidavit, Rubis continues to pay for the water service and has replaced the family’s water heater, washing machine, water tank, and installed a water holding tank.

Mrs Munroe said the first communication from the government over the matter was by a hand delivered letter dated March 8, 2013 from the Department of Environmental Health Services, which informed residents that the department would be conducting water sample collection and testing on March 10. It was explained that the exercise was a standard practice when there was evidence of fuel oil leaks. She said there was no further contact from the government until November 15, 2013.

In November, Mrs Munroe said the family was visited by two representatives from the BEST Commission, Hilda Luoga and John Bowleg, who were accompanied by two representatives from Black & Veatch, a global engineering and environmental consulting firm. The group allegedly inquired into the circumstances surrounding the contamination of the groundwater and the Munroe’s well water system.

Mrs Munroe said the family cooperated with the group, and expressed their concerns over the length of time taken to assess and subsequently resolve the matter. However, they received no further visits from any government agency.

“During this period we became increasing concerned about the risks to our health from being exposed to the toxic gasoline and hydrocarbon fumes in our home. As a result we called the BEST Commission, Mr Philip Weech and our Member of Parliament for Marathon Jerome Fitzgerald incessantly, leaving numerous messages,” the affidavit noted. “…We never received a formal response to our communication.”

It continued: “After leaving innumerable messages for Mr Fitzgerald we finally got to speak with Mr Weech who advised that he would pass the information on to the permanent secretary, Camille Johnson. Despite several strongly worded messages we were never able to speak to Mr Fitzgerald personally. Instead Mr Fitzgerald advised through his secretary the names of lawyers to contact.”

Despite the conversion to WSC supply, Mrs Munroe alleged that the smell of noxious and toxic gasoline fumes persisted due to contamination of their plumbing system.

To combat this, Mrs Munroe said the family would often leave all the water faucets on for continuous and extended periods of time in a bid to flush out the contamination.

The odour eventually diminished; however, Mrs Munroe said her family is concerned about residual contamination and long-term health effects as a result of their exposure to the fumes.

It was further alleged that no indoor air sampling or health assessments were conducted. Mrs Munroe said she sought private health care at her own expense for symptoms of severe itchiness of the skin. Other symptoms such as headaches, dizziness, and burning of eyes and nostrils were experienced frequently and with intensity, but have since diminished over time.

“Nevertheless we remain very concerned about the short-term and long-term effects on our health by this exposure,” the affidavit noted

“No further testing of our water wells was done by DEHS. Neither DEHS nor Rubis has ever communicated with us, regarding the results of their monitoring and recovery, the results of their testing, or the anticipated time for restoration and remediation.”

Last October, Mr Dorset explained that an independent report prepared by consultants Black and Veatch – on the reported 30,000-gallons of gasoline that leaked from underground storage tanks and allegedly contaminated groundwater in the surrounding area – will have to receive clearance from the Attorney General’s Office before findings are released.

He said this was due to the ongoing civil litigation between Rubis Bahamas and Cable Bahamas.