Mobil Pleads No Contest to Charges in Oil Spills

Mobil Oil Corp. pleaded no contest Thursday to misdemeanor criminal charges arising from two pipeline ruptures last year that spilled more than 130,000 gallons of crude oil into city sewers in Encino and Sherman Oaks and the Los Angeles River.

The corporation entered the pleas in Los Angeles Municipal Court to two violations of a state Fish and Game code section that makes it a crime to allow any petroleum or residual product to befoul state waters. The maximum penalty is a $1,000 fine.

Deputy City Atty. Vincent B. Sato said he will ask the court at a Jan. 4 sentencing hearing to order Mobil to repay about $100,000 to government agencies that incurred costs as a result of the spill. The agencies include the U.S. Coast Guard and the Los Angeles Police Department.

Sato said an investigation found that changes in the temperature of oil being transported through the pipeline caused it to corrode and to rupture the first time. The second break occurred while the pipeline was being repaired after the first leak.

The pipeline, which carries 2.6 million gallons a day from Kern County oil fields to Mobil’s Torrance refinery, released sticky oil onto city streets in Encino on Sept. 10, 1988, and in Sherman Oaks on Sept. 27. Some of the oil flowed into the storm sewer system, polluting the Los Angeles River from the San Fernando Valley to Long Beach and killing hundreds of fish and at least 33 waterfowl, Sato said.

He said there was no evidence that the company had been negligent or had spilled the oil intentionally, which would have been felony offenses.

Ernest J. Getto, an attorney for Mobil, said the company revised its monitoring procedures and began replacing older sections of the pipeline after the ruptures occurred.

Getto said the pleas entered by the company “just mean we’re not going to contest the charges. It’s not at all tantamount to a guilty plea.”

In August, the California Regional Water Quality Control Board levied an $85,000 fine against the company for the two breaks. Officials lauded Mobil for spending about $3 million to clean up the spills. But they said the volume of the leaks would have been less had the company installed more shut-off valves.