Springfield, Texas—A nursing home that received federal disaster relief funding after a gas leak is under investigation for potentially contaminating nearby residents.
In a lawsuit filed in March, Texas-based Springfield Nursing Home LLC, said it is cooperating with federal investigators and is “confident that no residents at this facility have been harmed or affected by the incident.”
State investigators, however, said the facility’s management was responsible for the leak, which was discovered in April.
The leak was traced to a pump at a storage tank used for liquid waste, the lawsuit said.
According to the lawsuit, Springfield officials did not report the leak to the state.
The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, a state agency that investigates environmental problems, said in a statement that “the safety of all residents of the facility is paramount.”
It said it was working with the state agency to determine how and why the leak occurred.
The agency declined to comment further.
The lawsuit also accused Springfield’s owner, the Houston-based Bed Bath & Beyond, of not adequately maintaining a building that housed storage tanks and water pumps.
Bed Bath& Beyond’s owners have not been named.
The nursing home’s former owner, Springwood Nursing Home Corp., also filed a lawsuit in Texas court on Friday, saying the company had not complied with state safety rules, and that “failure to respond appropriately to the leak resulted in serious harm to the residents of this facility and to all other residents and employees of the Bed Bath and Beyond facility.”
It is not known what triggered the leak.
