Unocal Ordered to Pay $75,000 Fine for Polluting Air
Unocal Corp. was fined $75,000--including $70,000 earmarked for alternative fuels research--after pleading no-contest Tuesday to charges of releasing pollutants into the air from its Wilmington refinery.
It was the first time a defendant in a local air pollution case has been required to give money for scientific research. The $70,000 will be paid to the Southern California Air Quality Management District’s clean fuels account, according to Los Angeles City Atty. James K. Hahn.
The sentence was imposed by Los Angeles Municipal Court Commissioner Barry Kohn for three violations of AQMD rules that bar the excessive release of particulate matter into the atmosphere.
‘Eye Toward Doing It Again’
“This is the first time we’ve required a defendant in an air quality case to give money to this type of research,” Hahn said in a statement. “We’ll be looking at future cases with an eye toward doing it again in appropriate situations.”
Hahn’s office charged Unocal on May 19, 1988, after AQMD monitors detected the excessive emissions in June and August, 1987.
The emissions had come from a thermal oxidizer smokestack that vents a fluid catalytic converter unit at the firm’s Wilmington plant, according to Deputy City Atty. Donald Kass, who prosecuted the case.
A fluid catalytic converter is used to break down the molecules of crude oil during refining in order to make final petroleum products, Kass said.
AQMD inspectors subsequently discovered that the filtering equipment, called a precipitator, was not functioning properly, a defect that persisted and led to the filing of the case.
When operating normally, a precipitator filters out enough particles so that the final emissions from a smokestack should comply with AQMD standards.
Pay for Research
The alternative fuels fund was established by the AQMD at the end of 1987 as a five-year, $30.4-million program to pay for research on clean fuels, including experimental buses running on methanol, electric vehicles and fuel cells.
The AQMD paid for the first year from its budget, but last year, the Legislature passed a bill that permits counties to add $1 to car registration fees to finance the program.
In the South Coast district, only Riverside County has approved the $1 surcharge, and the measure is pending in Los Angeles, Orange and San Bernardino counties. If all the counties in the South Coast district approve the $1 surcharge, the additional fee would raise $5.5 million a year.
Any shortfall would be made up by board funding or penalties, such as Unocal’s.
Times staff writer George Stein contributed to this report.
