Chevron Waste in the Pacific
I wish to thank the Sierra Club for acting in the public behalf by filing a $2.3-million lawsuit against Chevron Oil Co. (Times, April 19) for discharging allegedly illegal levels of grease and oil, ammonia, chromium and other petroleum byproducts into the ocean at El Segundo.
Reporter Patricia Lopez wrote about Chevron’s claims that it discharges an average of 6 million gallons of such waste a day into water 20 feet deep from a pipe that runs 500 feet out from shore. The story goes on to say that the company is licensed to discharge a maximum of 15 million gallons of waste water a day through the pipe.
I find it outrageous that any licensing authority would grant Chevron permission to take advantage of the public and of the local marine environment by allowing the company to discharge even 50,000 gallons of such waste a day into the South Bay.
Your story outlined the arrest of two of the nine Greenpeace environmentalists who attempted to plug the Chevron pipe, and added that a company spokesman said that if the group succeeds in plugging the pipe, it would be open to a felony charge of malicious damage.
I wish Greenpeace every success in its efforts. The Chevron position may be law for now, but it cannot reasonably be considered justice.
CHARLES De V. CONYERS II
Rancho Palos Verdes
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