SANDPOINT — The Idaho Department of Environmental Quality is moving to jump start a flagging cleanup effort at a Sandpoint gas station that has been jeopardizing ground and surface water quality for nearly 20 years.

The department filed suit against a former owner of Gas & Go to force compliance with a consent order governing the cleanup. The suit alternatively seeks a $400,000 judgment from Michael Young so IDEQ can restore a failed petroleum contamination recovery system.

The suit was filed in 1st District Court on Monday.

It’s at least the second time IDEQ has filed suit over underground petroleum leaks at the Fifth Avenue filling station, court documents indicate.

The state sued another previous owner, Ralph Williams, in 1991 after petroleum contamination was detected in surface and groundwater. The litigation resulted in a settlement agreement, a consent order and a trust account to help sustain the cleanup.

Williams, court records said, sold the business to Young in 2001 and took on the cleanup obligation. Young sold the station to Sydney Oskoui in 2004, but IDEQ argues the sale did not relieve Young of the remediation obligation because of an indemnity agreement.

The state exhausted the trust account funds maintaining and repairing the recovery system, which failed in 2008, court records show. It was also discovered the recovery system was falling short of cleaning up the contamination because of low transmissivity of soil in that area.

The state monitored recovery wells at the site in the spring of last year and detected the presence of aged petroleum product on top of the groundwater and dissolved petroleum constituents in groundwater advancing toward Sand Creek, according to the lawsuit.

The state advised Young further corrective action was needed at the site, but Young allegedly told regulators he was unable address the issue because of “financial constraints,” the suit said. The state asked Young for financial records documenting the hardship, but they were never provided and IDEQ has since been unable to contact Young.