Holden couple seeks action in MTBE case

HOLDEN – A lengthy dispute involving the state and a couple who believe their well water is contaminated has moved to the State House in Augusta.

Linda and Norris Nickerson of 11 Church Hill Road, with guidance from the Governor’s Office, asked state Rep. Benjamin Pratt, D-Eddington, to submit a bill that could force the state Department of Environmental Protection to find and clean up a suspected gasoline spill at their home or else buy their property.

The town assesses the property at $220,350. It has been the Nickersons’ home for 43 years.

The Nickersons said they discovered MTBE, or methyl tertiary-butyl ether, a colorless and potentially cancer-causing gasoline additive, in their single-family well in May 2004. Since then, they have traveled to a relative’s home in Bangor, a distance of seven miles, to shower, do laundry and to eat, Norris Nickerson said Friday.

“You cannot begin to imagine our level of frustration,” he said. “It’s been very draining.”

The couple became frustrated with DEP personnel who did the early testing. So they decided to limit water collections to an outside spigot, refusing to allow DEP to collect from their kitchen sink, which is a typical collection point. Later, they refused access to the property altogether.

The couple say DEP has not done its job in addressing the MTBE-contaminated well, and as a last resort asked Pratt to submit the bill, LD 542, which is actually a “resolve” that would have the temporary purpose of allowing the Nickersons to sue the state.

“My goal here was to make sure the landowners got the opportunity to go down to Augusta and put forward their case along with the DEP putting forward their case,” Pratt said Friday.

Since confirming the presence of MTBE, DEP officials have tested nearly a dozen neighboring wells and conducted more than 70 soil tests in an unsuccessful effort to determine the source of the contaminants.

All the water and soil tests and numerous reports, one done by a firm the couple handpicked, indicate the contamination source is within a couple hundred feet of the private well, which is between the Nickersons’ house and Church Hill Road.

“There has really been three levels of investigations out there and they all point to the fact that it was a very local source and a small spill,” said Ed Logue, DEP regional manager for eastern Maine, on Friday. “It appears it was on-site, in the recent past.”

A small gasoline spill or even a small leak from a lawn mower are examples of the type of contamination the tests indicate, he said.

Norris Nickerson adamantly denies ever spilling any gasoline over the four-plus decades he has lived on the property.

With all the testing, both soil and water, in the areas adjacent to the home, the one area that hasn’t been thoroughly tested is the Nickersons’ property, said George Seel, director of the Division of Technical Services for DEP’s Bureau of Remediation & Waste Management, on Friday.

If LD 542 passes, “it absolutely would require the Nickersons to allow us on their property,” he said. “It’s the only place that hasn’t been investigated yet.”

If the MTBE source is found on the couple’s property, “under the statute they would be considered the responsible party and would be liable for the costs to date,” Seel said.

The 21/2 years of testing and research have cost DEP some $31,000, mostly through the $140 weekly tests. A typical MTBE contamination mitigation, which normally includes quarterly testing annually, runs the agency an average $10,000 to $15,000, and that includes providing a new clean water well.

In that time period, the Nickersons have refused a filtering system and a new well, in part because DEP has not been able to identify the MTBE source, which makes the couple fears the contamination will only reoccur.

LD 542 was presented Tuesday in the House and referred to the Natural Resources Committee. The Senate version was presented Thursday and referred to the same committee. The clerk for the Natural Resources Committee said Friday the public hearings on the measure will be scheduled for sometime in March.

The Nickersons say they just want to know where the gasoline is coming from and to have it cleaned up.

“We’ll see what happens,” Norris Nickerson said.