State Sues Mobil Over Toxic Waste

State health officials have filed suit against Mobil Oil Corp., alleging that the company has repeatedly violated hazardous material laws at its Torrance refinery. The suit, filed by the state attorney general’s office, seeks a cleanup, a court order barring new violations and fines of up to $25,000 per day.

The main complaint in the suit involves Mobil’s past practice of piling up contaminated dirt at the refinery instead of immediately trucking it to a landfill licensed to handle hazardous materials. The dirt is contaminated with petrochemicals, including cancer-causing benzene.

Jim Marxen, a spokesman for the Department of Health Services, said Monday that the lawsuit is intended to penalize Mobil for what health officials perceive to be a cavalier attitude toward state laws governing the disposal of hazardous waste. But the safety problems cited in the suit have since been corrected, he said, and state officials are continuing to negotiate with the company over details of a cleanup program.

‘Technical Violations’

Mobil’s environment and safety manager at the refinery, Greg Munakata, said that the dispute involves “several technical or minor regulatory violations” and that “no issue of public health or safety is involved.”

The suit alleges that the inspectors found mounds of contaminated dirt at Mobil in March and December, 1987, and in January, 1988. Inspections dating back to 1983 found similar violations but were not cited in the suit, Marxen said.

The suit seeks no specific monetary damages, but each violation could result in a fine of $25,000 a day.

“I haven’t sat down and figured it out, but it is in the millions, the high millions,” Marxen said.

The suit, filed last week in Los Angeles Superior Court, is the latest in a series of problems for the refinery, which since November has suffered two explosions, two fires and a fatal fall.