Exxon leak trial opens in Baltimore County Circuit Court

Daily Record, The (Baltimore), Oct 15, 2008 by Danny Jacobs

ExxonMobil Corp. chose its bottom line over public well-being in refusing to replace what it knew to be a faulty detector at a Jacksonville gas station, a lawyer for nearby residents said Tuesday as their billion-dollar lawsuit went to trial.

The faulty equipment allowed a leak from a damaged fuel line to go undetected for more than a month in early 2006, spilling 25,000 gallons that contaminated the wells used by hundreds of nearby residents, attorney Stephen L. Snyder said.

"Exxon was on notice it had problems with the line leak detector ... and they did nothing. It's not like they didn't have the economic wherewithal to do something," Snyder told jurors in his four-hour opening statement in Baltimore County Circuit Court. "This was a corporation that knowingly or deliberately left in an unreliable piece of equipment."

Snyder, of Snyder Weltchek & Snyder in Pikesville, will need part of Wednesday to finish his initial statement on behalf of more than 300 plaintiffs. Their cases were consolidated for the trial, scheduled to last between three and five months.

At least 150 observers, many of them plaintiffs, packed the third- floor of the courthouse a half-hour before the trial's scheduled start.

The crowd filled retired Judge Maurice W. Baldwin Jr.'s courtroom and an adjacent courtroom that was supposed to be outfitted with closed-circuit televisions. When that didn't work, they stood in the hallway outside Baldwin's courtroom, holding open its doors to hear the proceedings.

Several plaintiffs, asked for comment once court adjourned for the day, said Snyder requested they not speak to reporters.

Snyder supplemented his statement with a PowerPoint presentation featuring videos, animation, deposition testimonies and dozens of internal Exxon e-mails and documents obtained during pretrial discovery. Instead of the usual blue computer screen, the presentation's backdrop was a striking black-and-white abstract design resembling a desert landscape -- or an oil slick.

Jurors and plaintiffs saw the presentation on a projection screen or one of two flat-screen televisions brought into the courtroom especially for the trial. Extra folding tables for the two teams of lawyers were filled with a dozen laptops, and a router in front of the bench blinked throughout the proceedings allowing wireless Internet access.

Required by law

The documents, which Snyder repeatedly called Exxon's "skeletons" and "dark secret," indicated the company was aware as early as 1998 that the line leak detectors used at the Jacksonville station and 660 others nationwide were underperforming and outdated. A line leak detector alerts a gas station operator when a leak of more than 3 gallons an hour is occurring and is required by law.

"This was a disaster waiting to happen," Snyder said. "It could have happened anywhere. Unfortunately it happened in Jacksonville, Maryland."

The leak began in mid-January 2006 when a hole was accidentally drilled in a pipe below the gas station. It was not caught until five weeks later.

Exxon agreed last month to pay $4 million to the Maryland Department of the Environment as a penalty, and Snyder said the company has already spent $50 million on cleanup efforts that could last more than decade.

Snyder said replacing each antiquated detector with a newer model would cost $12,000. Exxon makes a profit of $100 million daily, meaning the company could replace a detector every 10 seconds, he said. To emphasize his point, jurors were periodically shown a running clock indicating how many detectors could have been replaced during Snyder's opening argument.

"This is a leak that shouldn't have happened," he said. "This is a company that decided profits were more important than safety."

Safety issues included the contamination of well water used by many of the plaintiffs, he said. Snyder said the gasoline additive MTBE, a suspected toxin that was phased out in summer 2006, has been found in some of the water supplies. At least five wells have recently been found to have traces of benzene, a known carcinogen, he added.

Snyder used a slide show to detail the impact of the leak on the Jacksonville/Phoenix area. The "before" pictures showed idyllic greenery and immaculate homes; the "after" pictures featured industrial lights, heavy machinery, construction cones and large piles of dirt.

"These citizens live in what they now consider a prison," Snyder said.

Snyder also noted property values in the affected neighborhoods have declined, leaving homeowners unable to sell.

"They are constantly being asked, 'Why did you not move? How can you jeopardize the lives of your children?' The answer is, they have no choice," he said. "Clearly there's a stigma in this area."

James F. Sanders, a Nashville, Tenn., lawyer leading ExxonMobil's defense team, will give his opening statement tomorrow once Snyder is finished.

Baldwin, the retired judge, is specially assigned to the case from Harford County.