Utah. 20 plus acres for sale with 7 easements. One easement has a pipeline spill that is still not cleaned up been there for 20 years. at this point i don't expect the spill to threaten anyone down the road.
My question is do we need a Realtor or a Real Estate Attorney to help with the sale.
Are you the seller or the buyer?
I have worked in the environmental field for years. The rules do change from time to time so even if you could get some government agency to say that the spill doesn't need to be cleaned up that doesn't preclude a change some years (even next year) down the road to say it needs to be cleaned up.
Who is responsible for the cleanup? Usually the current owner of the property, even if they weren't the owner when the spill occurred. The owner of the pipeline could have some liability too. The current owner of the pipeline will point to the owner at the time of the spill (I'm assuming ownership has changed over time). Then there is the owner of the oil that was passing through the pipeline at the time of the spill (who will probably contend that even though it was their material that spilled they were not responsible for the operation or maintenance of the pipeline). Notice that there is a lot of finger pointing and little action.
If I were the buyer I would either not buy or require that everything get cleaned up with approval by the state environmental agency.
If I were the seller I would disclose the spill and see whether I could palm it off on some buyer willing to take the risk. Because cleanup and lawyers are expensive.
