What was at the end of that old rusty
pipe
For 10 years, Joe and Linda Johnson, their two sons and their wives and six grandchildren, spent one week during the summer at Lonely Pines Resort. Realizing that family time was so precious, Joe suggested they buy an old resort with 3 rustic cabins so they could enjoy more frequent family outings. The purchase transaction closed in record time.
Two years later, the Johnson clan decided to remodel each cabin. They applied for a loan from a local bank to help fund the improvements. The bank insisted that the property be inspected for any environmental hazards by an environmental testing company. During the inspection, the environmental engineer determined that a rusty bent pipe sticking out of the ground- which the seller of the resort had told Joe was used to hold up the volleyball net- was actually an old filler pepe for an underground gasoline storage tank. If that wasn’t enough, the tank was still in the ground and was leaking gasoline into the groundwater.
Instantly, Joe and Linda, the boys and their wives became “responsible persons” under their state’s environmental protection laws. The tank was removed, contaminated soil was excavated and a ground water-monitoring well was installed. Although the tank was removed at their cost, the silver lining, if there was one, was that a large percentage of the other costs to clean up the mess were eventually reimbursed by their state’s pollution control agency.