Opinion ID: 159591
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Nuisance Liability

Text: 19 In addition to holding Koch liable for a share of response costs under CERCLA, the district court also held Koch liable for damages to Tosco under Oklahoma public nuisance law. Koch claims the district court erred because [t]he unrefuted evidence establishes that no claim for statutory nuisance exists. Koch further argues Tosco's nuisance claim is barred under Oklahoma's two-year statute of limitations, and Tosco did not suffer a special injury, as required to maintain an action for public nuisance. We address each argument in turn. 20 Koch first attempts to avoid liability under state law by characterizing the alleged nuisance as the existence of petroleum seeps into Claridy Creek, not the presence of petroleum hydrocarbons in the groundwater under the Refinery. According to Koch, it therefore cannot be liable because there is no evidence that seeps of petroleum hydrocarbons, which constitute the claimed nuisance, occurred during Koch's ownership or operation of its portion of the Refinery. The evidence as Koch relates it establishes that the petroleum hydrocarbon seeps were first observed in the early 1970s by Sun and that those seeps were abated by Sun's installation and operation of the petroleum hydrocarbon recovery system. Only later was the abatement discontinued and did the seeps recur. In sum, Koch denies it ever committed any unlawful acts or failed to perform any duties required by the law in effect at the time it owned and operated the Refinery, which acts or omitted duties caused the alleged nuisance. We disagree. 21 First, Koch cites no legal authority or factual evidence to support its claim that seeps of polluted groundwater into Claridy Creek constitute a public nuisance, but the presence of hydrocarbons in the groundwater does not. We fail to see how the Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality's reference to the seeps as a public nuisance in any way limits legal liability to that particular aspect of the nuisance. The pollution of any Oklahoma waters, including groundwater, has been prohibited by state statute since the early 1900s well before Koch's waste disposal activity at the Refinery. As illustrated above, there is ample record evidence establishing Koch disposed of hazardous wastes that have percolated through the soils and into the groundwater beneath the Refinery. The groundwater is hydrologically connected to the Creek as evidenced by the seeps. Consequently, Koch's denial of any unlawful activity vis vis water pollution and the public nuisance stemming therefrom rings hollow. 22 We also reject Koch's argument Tosco's nuisance claim is barred by a two-year statute of limitations. While the statute of limitations on private nuisance claims under Oklahoma law is two years, see N.C. Corff Partnership, Ltd. v. OXY USA, Inc., 929 P.2d 288, 293 (Okla. App. Div. 4 1996), Okla. Stat. tit. 50, 7 provides: No lapse of time can legalize a public nuisance amounting to an actual obstruction of public right. Concluding, as we have here, that the pollution of Oklahoma waters constitutes a public nuisance under Oklahoma law, the district court of the Western District of Oklahoma, in Fischer v. Atlantic Richfield Co., 774 F.Supp. 616 (W.D. Okla. 1989), applied Okla. Stat. tit. 50, 7 to disallow the two-year statute of limitations as a defense against a plaintiff seeking pollution abatement or the costs of abatement. Id. at 619. We see no reason to reject this existing interpretation of Oklahoma law. 23 Finally, we agree with the District Court Tosco adequately proved it suffered a special injury sufficient to maintain a cause of action under Okla. Stat. tit. 50, 10 by establishing it has borne the entire cost of investigation and remediation at the Refinery. See Westwood Pharm., Inc. v. National Fuel Gas Distrib. Corp., 737 F.Supp. 1272, 1281 (W.D.N.Y. 1990) (holding that if Westwood can establish it has incurred response costs consistent with the National Contingency Plan, those costs will be sufficient to meet the special injury criterion for bringing a public-nuisance action).