ECTOR COUNTY, Texas — Attorneys for 20 Ector County residents and Allbright & Associates filed a lawsuit Monday against the owners of Permian Basin Containers in Odessa, amid ongoing issues at the site since the large fire on July 23.
According to the lawsuit, residents are accusing the owners of gross negligence which resulted in emergency evacuations and unleashed massive quantities of cancer-causing chemicals into local water sources.
The residents allege the owners of PBC ignored years of safety and health complaints from the residents near the site. The lawsuit claims that when the residents got a response back from PBC, they said the large plastic containers stockpiled at the site posed no threat because they were either empty or contained water.
The lawsuit states that the fire on July 23 melted storage containers, releasing contents that created a "chemical soup" that would spread through the neighborhood.
According to the lawsuit, at the time of the blaze, PBC told residents that the fire posed no health threat. However, residents experienced nausea, strange sensations in their noses and throats, burning eyes and headaches so bad they've required emergency care.
In the press release sent to NewsWest 9 Monday, most of the residents named in the lawsuit individually explain their experience dealing with the aftermath of the July 23 fire.
Ruth Douthit was born and raised in Odessa, and joins an alley with the Permian Basin Containers facility. According to Douthit, she and her husband's soil and well water have been contaminated following the PBC fire.
"It's been traumatic, I can't even tell you how bad..." Douthit said. "It's kind of ruined our retirement...we had plans of building an RV place and we've already got money invested in it but we're having trouble getting that money back because we're not able to do it now due to the contamination."
Douthit shared prior to the fire, they depended on their well water beside the home they've owned since 1978.
"We had to hook up to city water...it took us a while and it costs about $8,000 to hook up," said Douthit.
According to Douthit, other neighbors were worried something like last month's explosion was going to happen.
"My husband and I had been concerned about this place ever since they moved in because they started bringing in the totes and they got taller and taller," Douthit said. "...And then they started putting fire signs on the side of them, and they had looked like oil and chemicals... We got concerned so we called the Ector County Environmental officials to come check it out. Well, they went and checked it out, but it wasn't in their jurisdiction. They couldn't do anything at all."
NewsWest9 reached out to a lawyer representing Permian Basin Containers, but they had not yet seen the lawsuit. Therefore, they could not provide a comment.
Clean-up efforts at the facility took place following the fire and Permian Basin Containers has been cooperating with the TCEQ.