Fuel-oil deliveryman's mistake results in demolition of Culpeper home.

By DONNIE JOHNSTON
The Free Lance-Star

Date published: 4/22/2002

Matt O'Saben's former home west of Culpeper vanished last week, and Quarles Petroleum now has a couple of acres of land it never expected to own.

Quarles bought O'Saben's house on Eggbornsville Road in February and dismantled it last week as part of a cleanup effort that became necessary after a company deliveryman poured about 550 gallons of heating oil into the basement last Thanksgiving.

Working under the supervision of the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality, Quarles also removed subsoil from beneath the 40-year-old brick rambler and replaced it with clean dirt.

"[The contaminated] soil was a type where the oil didn't migrate very far," company President Ben Wafle said. "We're positive there's no further contamination."

The process that ended Thursday began on Thanksgiving Day when Alan Wayne Smith of Remington was asked to make an emergency holiday oil delivery.

"I told him he was at the wrong house," Marie Nicholson, who lives next door, recalled last week. "I told him that they didn't use oil to heat that house anymore, that they had changed over to propane gas years before."

Nicholson said Smith would not listen when she told him that her husband had bought and removed the old tank. He instead began pumping oil into an intake pipe located on the home's carport.

"After he had pumped for a while, Smith asked me, 'How much does this tank hold?'" Marie said. "I told him again that there was no tank."

All the oil that went into the disconnected pipe ended up in O'Saben's basement. When Nicholson's husband, Smoky, went next door to check, he found the liquid coming out a back door.

O'Saben and his wife, Sara, were spending Thanksgiving with family members in Fauquier County when the incident occurred. The 26-year-old homeowner returned to find heating oil an inch deep in his basement and his house permeated with its odor.

Smith, who parked across the road and waited for authorities to arrive, was charged by Virginia State Police with driving under the influence. Police reported his blood-alcohol content to be 0.14 at the time.

The 55-year-old deliveryman, who reportedly had worked for Quarles for 32 years, was convicted in Culpeper District Court in January of DUI, given a 30-day suspended sentence and ordered to pay a $200 fine.

In addition, his driver's license was revoked for one year.

On appeal, a Culpeper Circuit judge in April allowed Smith to plead guilty to reckless driving and fined him $750 plus court costs. He also was required to perform 100 hours of community service.

His driver's license was reinstated. Smith is no longer employed by Quarles.

At the O'Saben home, much of the oil escaped through drains in the concrete floor and migrated into the back lot.

Hazardous-materials crews were called in to help clean up the mess, and several dump-truck loads of dirt were removed from the scene the day after the mistaken delivery.

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Date published: 4/22/2002