Cost Recovery for Petroleum Hydrocarbon

AquAeTer provided consulting and expert witness services for a cost recovery case involving a release of gasoline from an underground storage tank. Site-specific hydrogeological data, chemical data and fate and transport analysis were used to put bounds on when the release occurred. MTBE was used as a trace to date the age of the contaminant plumes. Historical records indicated that MTBE had been used in this area much earlier than the plaintiff was claiming. The analysis was complicated by overlapping plumes from a companion plume from an offsite source. Costs were also projected for cleaning up the portion of the plume that could be identified as occurring during the client’s ownership of the site.

AquAeTer provided the following services to its client for this sampling and reporting project:

• Documents review
• Environmental data review
• Fate and transport analysis
• Preparation of expert reports
• Expert testimony
• Groundwater velocities and flow directions
• Retardation factors for hydrocarbons in the plume area
• Analysis of historic use of MTBE in gasoline for the area