County attorney seeks injunction against gas station

The county’s Casper Aquifer Protection Plan, adopted in 2011, cites Tumbleweed Express’s underground storage tanks as one of the top seven risks for contaminating the aquifer.

Such risks regarding underground storage tanks became clear in Lander this month. Gasoline from a Maverik gas station in Lander has been leaking into the Popo Agie River this month and the Department of Environmental Quality cited the gas station April 12 for {span style=”font-weight: 400;”}“failing to make the necessary repairs to prevent overfilling the unleaded gasoline tanks.”{/span}

Albany County alleges Tumbleweed Express’s current construction is “in a potentially sensitive aquifer recharge area that is up-gradient to both the city’s Turner municipal wellfield and to private domestic wells in the county and is creating a potential risk to the public health and safety of citizens and defendants.”

The aquifer protection plan states there’s maybe less than 30 feet of Satanka Shale overlying the Casper Formation at the gas station, which lies at the corner of Grand Avenue and Bluebird Lane.

The gas station lies within the the Aquifer Protection Overlay Zone, which was created by county commissioners in 2003. Gas stations and fuel pipelines are banned within the zone, but Tumbleweed Express was grandfathered in.

However, the county’s zoning resolution also states that right to the grandfathered use should end if “active and continuous operations of a non-conforming use is discontinued for a period of twenty-four consecutive months.”

County officials had assumed Tumbleweed Express’s pumps had not been in operation for the last decade.

According to Trent’s 17-page injunction request, Tumbleweed Express’s state licensure for above-ground fuel pumps expired in 2009 before being renewed in 2018 after new owners Amandeep Pandher and Manjot Singh purchased the property.

Trent alleges that means, if any gasoline was sold during that nine-year period, the gasoline “would have been sold illegally and without the proper permits,” negating the business’s grandfathered rights.

Attorney Jason Tangeman, who’s representing Tumbleweed Express, told the Laramie Boomerang on Tuesday evening he wasn’t ready to expound on the county’s allegations.

“The county provided that complaint at about 5 o’clock,” he said. “I have not had an opportunity to fully review it at this time, but I’ll respond more fully after I’ve had that opportunity.”

Albany County Planning Director David Gertsch discovered, in February, Tumbleweed Express’s plans to upgrade its fuel system after the business’s contractor, CGRS Solutions Developed, asked the city of Laramie if a permit would be needed. The gas station does not lie within city limits.

If Tumbleweed Express still has grandfathered rights to sell gasoline, it could still have the right to expand its “nonconforming use” if it were to complete a site-specific investigation that shows “no increased risk to the aquifer” and the construction were to include technology that would mitigate any risks.

However, any changes of use require a zoning certificate from the county.

Repairs to a “nonconforming use” in the aquifer protection zone are allowed if “after the repairs are complete, the best available control technology is in place to prevent hazardous materials from entering the Casper Aquifer.”

In a Feb. 26 email, Kari Chambers, the compliance project coordinator for Tumbleweed Express’s contractor, told the city the scope of work would upgrade the diesel suction pump to a pressure pump system, relocate submersible pumps and vents, while also installing new piping, submersible pumps, under dispenser containment sumps, and automatic tank gauge equipment.

Trent’s request states that, even if Tumbleweed Express’s grandfathered rights still exist, “the project is a change in the location of the fuel line operating system and is potentially a modification of use by the change in location of the underground system requiring a site-specific investigation.”

According to Trent’s request, Singh told Gertch on March 12 that the business’s fuel pumps had been used in the last year.

Gertsch sent Tumbleweed Express a cease-and-desist letter April 3, demanding the end of “any activities relating to retail fuel sales.”

In response, Singh reportedly called Gertsch twice on that same day and promised to start work on upgrading the fueling system April 15.

On Friday, the county received a letter from Tangeman that asserted both that Tumbleweed Express is in compliance with the zoning regulation and no site-specific investigation is needed.

Commissioners Terri Jones and Heber Richardson both saw Singh using equipment Friday and Saturday to remove concrete, preparing the ground for sub-surface work, court documents state.

On Tuesday, Trent asked Albany County District Court Judge Tori Kricken for both a permanent injunction and a hearing for a preliminary injunction.