Almost five months after seeking a court order, the Wyoming-based Sinclair Oil Corp. was allowed to remove its signage from a defunct gas station between Cortez and Mancos.
The Montezuma County Sheriff’s Office served civil paperwork at the former U.S. 160 station on July 1. The files were posted on the front door after authorities were unable to make personal contact with the owner, Raymond McCarty. The signs in question were subsequently removed.
Sinclair officials filed its five-page complaint on Feb. 6, asking the Montezuma County District Court to instruct McCarty to explain why the company’s trademarked symbols shouldn’t be removed from the premises. The company argued that it owned its dinosaur-themed signage, which was valued at $3,000.
In addition to recovering its logos, Sinclair officials indicated in the complaint that its business reputation was being harmed because of giant billboards that McCarty erected after an oil remediation dispute.
Some 500,000 people nnually visit Mesa Verde National Park, which is three miles west of the property. On site, McCarty’s ads read, “Massive Petroleum Spill – Toxic Site” with skull-and-crossbones “poison” icons and “This Toxic Mess Brought To You By State of Colorado.”
Contained in the claim for relief, Boulder attorney Geraldine A. Brimmer explained that the plaintiffs granted a 2010 contract to Cortez-based Fraley & Co. to sell Sinclair products at the now closed gas station. The contract, which expired in March 2014, required that Fraley return the company’s signage within 10 days of termination.
According to the complaint, McCarty had refused Fraley officials access to the site in order to remove Sinclair logos.
Frustrated by the lack of cleanup assistance from the Colorado Division of Oil and Public Safety, McCarty has previously indicated that he would continue his fight against the oil cartels.
“I’m going to hammer it as long as I can hammer it,” McCarty told county officials last summer. “It’s unjust.”
The dispute involves three parcels of land at the former Wild Wild Rest Sinclair Gas station and convenience store, which was contaminated after a gasoline spill. The station closed in 2004, and in 2006, OPS deemed Fraley was responsible for removing the tanks, officials said.
According to McCarty, when the above-ground tanks were removed, residual fuels flowed through gas lines and spilled onto the land. McCarty still owns the land, and refuses to vacate to allow for a cleanup.
Fraley then hired engineering firm Souder, Miller and Associates, which obtained a corrective action plan from OPS regulators in 2010, according to the agency.
In a previous federal suit, a jury awarded McCarty $1 in damages, basically rejecting his claims that Fraley was responsible for the spill.
Mitigation would include removal of contaminated soil, re-contouring the property and installing monitoring stations at an estimated cost to the state of $200,000.
McCarty said 26 monitoring wells were drilled on site, most of which pierced the Mancos Shale Layer. He said groundwater was now contaminated with 400 times the allowable limit of ethyl benzene and toluene.
