2 Greenpeace Members Seized in Effort to Plug Chevron Pipe

Two members of the environmental organization Greenpeace were arrested Thursday afternoon when their inflatable boats strayed inside a forbidden area after an attempt to plug a Chevron Oil Co. refinery waste water outfall pipe in the ocean off El Segundo.

Greenpeace divers already were frustrated by rough seas in their attempt to block the pipe that runs 500 feet out from shore and, according to Chevron, discharges an average of 6 million gallons a day into water 20 feet deep. They had attached a grappling hook and buoy to mark the end of the pipe and returned to the organization’s boat, Alcyon, anchored offshore, until seas calmed.

But as nine members of the group headed for King Harbor in two Zodiac inflatable boats, they allegedly crossed the 300-foot limit and were stopped by El Segundo police who were taken out to them by Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies.

El Segundo Police Capt. Tim Grimmond said that only the two operators of the boats were cited, then released. They were identified as Edward L. Martinez, 25, and Diane Jane Desnoyers, 25, both of San Francisco. One of the inflatables was impounded for being improperly registered.

In the meantime, employees of Chevron, which has a license to operate boats within 300 feet of the beach, removed the buoy from the end of the pipe.

Greenpeace spokesman Ty Braswell said, “We’re not going home until we do it.” He added, “Someday, we’d all like to eat fish out of the bay.”

The Sierra Club has filed a $2.3-million lawsuit against Chevron for discharging allegedly illegal levels of grease and oil, ammonia, chromium and other petroleum byproducts into the ocean at El Segundo.

The company is licensed to discharge a maximum of 15 million gallons of waste water a day through the pipe.

A company spokesman said that if the group succeeds in plugging the pipe, it would be open to a felony charge of malicious damage.