JOSe DIDN'T ANSWER HIS PHONE, BUT THAT WAS NOTHING NEW. She left him a message about the EPA, then called Tim Smith, an environmental attorney from Baker Botts, one of the three big firms in Dallas.
"You better make plans to relocate your office," Smith said, "at least for the near future."
"It's bullshit," Casey said.
"Even if it's totally unfounded," Smith said, "and from what you tell me, it's not."
"A little oil in the pipes?" Casey said.
"Probably got a plume," Smith said. "Most old stations have them. Gas leaking from the tanks for fifty years. Let me guess, some magnanimous developer donated the property."
"So?"
"I saw one of these out by Tech," Smith said. "Rich alumni owns a piece of land, gives it to the school, takes a huge tax write-off, and surprise, the school goes to put up a building and finds out the site has PCBs off the charts. The alum says he didn't know. He doesn't own it anymore, and the school has to clean it up. EPA? They don't care. You own it, you clean it. Doesn't matter some farmer dumped oil down a dry well sixty years ago, you fix it. That's the game."
"I'm a nonprofit," she said.
"You could go belly-up," he said. "State comes in, cleans it, and auctions the land. Change the name of your charity and you can buy it back cheap. About a five-year process, though. My wife's a Realtor with some nice downtown office space if you want her number."
Casey's head spun.
"They said something about me sending people to work, some Resource Recovery Act. I've heard of it, but what is it?"
"Hardball," Smith said. "Trying to scare you."
"How so?"
"It's a crime to knowingly expose employees to toxic substances," Smith said.
"Is there anything to it?"
"Very tough for them," he said. "It's just a position. Sixty, seventy percent of the time you can plea down."
"Plea down?"
"It's rare you get jail time with petroleum products," he said. "It's not like it's arsenic."
"Jail?" she asked. "Not really, right?"
"Highly unlikely," he said.
"But possible?" she asked. "You're kidding."
"I wish you hadn't pulled that stunt with running away."
"I wasn't under arrest."
"You made them look bad, grabbing your stuff and slipping out the back like that," he said. "These federal agents get touchy."
"They're with the EPA," she said.
"That's what they get touchy about. They carry guns, too, you know. Pension after twenty years. All that."
"Just do your best," Casey said, "and let me know."
"No worries. I'll handle it."
Casey hung up and headed for her Realtor's office to find a place where she and her team could work.