For more than a decade, Carl and Patricia Morgan rented out their two-story house in Fallston, but it has been vacant for nearly four years now.
The Morgans can't rent the well-kept house with the manicured lawn and they won't let their daughter live there either.
After a toxic gasoline chemical leaked into their well, the Morgans are afraid of their water.
Since 2004, residents like the Morgans have worried about their health, quality of life and diminished property values. Some residents have shouldered the expense of bottled water and maintenance costs on a filtration system, all while waiting to see what happens with the lawsuits against their former neighbor, a major oil company.
Over the years, Patricia Morgan said the contamination of the wells has been "forgotten and lost in the shuffle. Not much has changed. We feel we're in limbo."
The Morgans' property in the Upper Crossroads neighborhood backs up to the now-closed Exxon service station where the chemical leak was discovered. The site of the former station is blanketed with dandelions and scattered well heads. There's also a water treatment machine enclosed by a chain-link fence.
The gasoline additive, methyl tertiary butyl ether, MTBE, leaked from the station at the intersection of Routes 152 and 165 and affected more than 100 homes and businesses within a one-half mile radius. The spreading chemical also triggered the largest contamination of MTBE in Maryland, according to officials.
It could take at least a decade before the MTBE, detected in 155 Fallston wells, completely disappears, experts said.
In a New York federal court earlier this week , 12 major oil companies, including BP, Shell, Sunoco and Chevron, agreed to pay $423 million to settle MTBE-related lawsuits with 153 public water systems across the country. But ExxonMobil was not among the companies involved in the settlement, which is pending court approval.
Exxon will continue to defend itself from MTBE lawsuits, said company spokeswoman Prem Nair.
"As far as we are concerned, these suits are without merit," she said. "Our conduct did not cause either physical injury or damages; we plan to vigorously defend our position."
The contamination in Fallston became public nearly four years ago, prompting many residents in the neighborhood to stop using their wells and to rely on bottled water.
