Mobil Pleads No Contest in 2 Pipeline Ruptures
Mobil Oil Corp. pleaded no contest Thursday to charges stemming from two pipeline ruptures in the San Fernando Valley last year that spilled more than 130,000 gallons of crude oil into city sewers and the Los Angeles River.
Mobil entered the pleas in Los Angeles Municipal Court to two violations of a law making it a crime punishable by up to a $1,000 fine to allow petroleum products to pass into state waters.
The pipes--which carry 2.6 million gallons a day from Kern County to Mobil’s Torrance refinery--spewed oil onto city streets in Encino on Sept. 10, 1988, and in Sherman Oaks on Sept. 27, 1988.
The city attorney’s office said it will ask that Mobil be made to pay about $100,000 to various agencies that helped clean up the spill.
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