Re: Beede Waste Oil Site

Dear Member,

We realize that the deadline is drawing near to respond to EPA, especially for the larger de Minimis. You must respond to EPA by August 1st. Responding around July 25th should be sufficient time to reach the EPA within their 60 days time frame. Most of you probably did not receive the package on June 1st but it was stamped on that day by the EPA.

We are proceeding with the legislative process and are still confident that the extension that Senator Robert Smith of New Hampshire solicited from the national EPA Administrator, Christine Whitman, on our behalf, will be granted.

Believe me, we understand your frustration in this matter, but remember that thus far you are named as a potentially responsible party but have not been assessed any money so our advice is to hang in there and to be patient.

The Small Business Liability Protection Act S. B. 1064 can be viewed on our website www.nessara.com. Click on the US Senate link and type in the bill number. You will be able to read the sponsors of the bill as well as the entire bill. We are told that Senator Smith will introduce language that will make it specific to waste oil. This will take time. That is why the extension is so crucial.

NESSARA is looking into forming a working committee. However, according to EPA, this does not preclude you from having to respond individually. You have to respond.

The small de Minimis have until August 20 to respond and therefore a little more breathing room. Our advice is not to rush with your check. Time is of the essence here and many things can happen between now and then and we are not letting up. The staff is totally committed to this issue and has been since the document first came out on June 1st.

In the interim, certainly, you would want to compare your records with EPA to at least determine whether the number of gallons that you appear to be liable for is in the same ballpark as theirs.

Senator Jeffords' office has contacted us. We hope to have a meeting with his staff soon. We will meet with him in Vermont or in Washington whenever and wherever he is available. Senator Jeffords is the new chair of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee and we need to see that S. B. 1064 does not die in committee. We are told by the Senator's staff that it is very much alive and that even the EPA supports it.

Senator Kennedy's office has also received our letter and we expect to have further contact with him. We are also alerting the other senators in New England and requesting their support.

Information that we have and that can be very useful is as follows. Check your insurance policy. If you were in business in the 80s and my guess is that's how you made the EPA list, my information is that there was no pollution exclusion on your station policies in Massachusetts prior to January 1, 1990. Even after 1990, you may have an endorsement on your policy whereby your insurance may pay to defend you if you have to go to court even if it does not pay the claims. It is definitely something worth exploring and could save you a few bucks. Unfortunately, I do not have the information for New Hampshire, Vermont and Maine, but check your policies. They are probably very similar.

Another lesson that comes out of this is to check now, if you are still in business, on how the oil presently being removed from your property is being handled. The last thing you need is to find yourself involved in another Beede somewhere else.

NESSARA has been in contact with the new head of the EPA for the New England Region. He is quite knowledgeable of the situation as he is presently Commissioner of the Department of Environmental Services in NH and has served in that position for 12 years. He did make the statement that NH's DES would not be coming after anyone for cleanup monies at this site. He assumes his new position on August 6.

We have on board an environmental lawyer advising us who has extensive experience in this field and has done work for NESSARA in the past.

In summary, our approach has been through the legislative process. You can hire an attorney who may be able to negotiate for you or prepare a letter for you to EPA and it will cost you money. Also, it will not preclude you from being cited at another site. If the right bill passes the Senate it will remove the liability for small businesses for any future responsibility at other sites as well as this one. We are monitoring the language that is making its way into the bill, working closely with the Service Station Dealers of America and Allied Trades. Their office is in Maryland and their executive director, Roy Littlefield goes to the Hill on a regular basis and they are paying close attention to this bill.

Additional information will be provided as it becomes available.

Sincerely,