EPA v. Grant Warehouse

Case summary

The Prospective Purchaser Agreement (PPA) with the Portland Development Commission (PDC), along with a consent decree between the United States and the Site owner, Mr. Erwin Grant (Grant), will resolve ongoing litigation between the United States and Grant, and will allow PDC to purchase the property for its appraised value of $177,000.00, complete remediation of the property, and then redevelop the property in a low-income, environmental justice community in northeast Portland. The Site property is located at 3368 N.E. Martin Luther King Boulevard in Portland, Multnomah County, Oregon (the Site). The CD resolves claims EPA has for Past Response Costs EPA incurred at the Site from November 1998 to February 1999 in conducting a time-critical removal action at the Site. The U.S. Department of Justice filed a complaint on November 9, 2000 against Grant personally and against the Site property in rem. DOJ then filed a motion for summary judgment on May 11, 2001, which was then subsequently withdrawn by DOJ on December 14, 2001, due to litigation risks and disclosure issues related to the CET Environmental billing issues, discussed in the litigative risks section below. DOJ then refiled the summary judgment motion. Grant and the real property defendant also moved for summary judgment, and on December 20, 2002, the Court dismissed Erwin Grant (and Ken Grant as conservator of the estate of Erwin Grant - see below) from the case, but allowed the case to continue against the Property in rem. On October 16, 2003, the Court granted the United States' motion for summary judgment to recover $469,312.08 of its costs from the Property. EPA has a lien against the Site property for its total costs of approximately $1.4 million. For the same reasons the initial summary judgment motion was withdrawn, DOJ only sought to recover $469,312.08 in its refiled summary judgment motion, based on DOJ's analysis of the supporting cost evidence. The basis for the Court's granting Grant's summary judgment motion on Grant's personal liability, and dismissing the United States' action against Grant, was Grant's incompetence. The Court found that in 2001 (after the United States filed its initial complaint in this case), the Multnomah County Superior Court determined that Grant was legally incompetent to represent himself or handle his personal affairs and appointed Grant's son, Ken Grant, to be the conservator of his estate. Based on this state court finding, District Court Judge Anna Brown dismissed the action against Grant without prejudice on the basis that the Court lacked jurisdiction over him due to his apparent incompetence. However, by the time she made her ruling on this matter, the 3 year statute of limitations had run against Ken Grant as conservator of Grant's estate, thereby making it impossible for the United States to amend its complaint to include Ken Grant as conservator of Grant's estate as a defendant in this action. The CD provides that Grant will enter into a purchase and sale agreement with PDC, and that PDC will take title to the Site property on or before January 29, 2004. PDC will pay $177,000.00 to buy the Site property and Grant and EPA will equally share the proceeds from that sale (as specified in the CD, EPA will receive $88,500.00). PDC has budgeted approximately $514,000 for remediation of the site property and for tearing down the warehouse itself. The additional remediation is designed to meet residential as opposed to industrial cleanup standards that EPA used for the removal action. The appraised value of the property was determined to be $177,000.00 by an independent appraiser hired by PDC, and a copy of that appraisal was shared with EPA. PDC is a recipient of a $200,000 Brownfields Site Remediation grant from EPA, which includes a $40,000 match obligation by the recipient toward remediating the site. After tearing down the existing warehouse, PDC will then market the site to developers

Defendants (1)

• Portland Development CommissionNamed in complaintNamed in settlement

Facilities (1)

• GRANT WAREHOUSE

  3368 NE MARTIN LUTHER KING BLVD, PORTLAND, OR, 97212

  Registry ID: 110042080459

Statutes cited

• CERCLA 107A — Cost Recovery

Enforcement conclusions (1)

• Grant Warehouseentered 2004-01-29

  Primary law: CERCLA

Timeline (8 milestones)

• 2000-06-23Referred To Dept Of Justice
• 2000-06-23Referred To Headquarters
• 2000-11-09Complaint Filed With Court
• 2003-12-19Final Order Lodged
• 2004-01-29Concluded
• 2004-01-29Final Order Entered
• 2004-02-14Enforcement Action Data Entered
• 2006-05-19Enforcement Action Closed