Chevron Pays Fine of $6.5 Million for Pollution : Environment: The company’s president pleads guilty to charges of repeated dumping of oil and grease off the county’s coast in the 1980s. It is the third largest penalty of its kind.

A top Chevron official pleaded guilty on behalf of the company Monday to 65 misdemeanor violations of the Clean Water Act stemming from dumping of oil and grease off the Ventura County coast in the 1980s.

Raymond Galvin, president of Chevron USA Production Co., which supervises oil production in the United States, handed over a check for $6.5 million, the third-largest criminal penalty assessed against any company for violating environmental statutes.

The violations occurred from 1982 to 1987 around Platform Grace, 12 miles southwest of Ventura.

Chevron knowingly and repeatedly discharged illegal amounts of the toxic materials into the Pacific Ocean and tried to cover up the illegal dumping, the government charged.

The proceeding, before U.S. Dist. Judge Harry Hupp in Los Angeles, was relatively brief. Galvin did not make a statement other than pleading guilty to the counts.

“This is something we wanted to get behind us,” Galvin told reporters afterward.

“We solved the problem and improved our operations and training,” he said. “We’ve learned a lot from it. But it certainly was a very expensive lesson.”

Assistant U.S. Atty. Gary S. Lincenberg said after Monday’s hearing that “this is a very significant case because it showed that the government is willing to devote its resources and prosecute” a major American corporation for violations of federal environmental laws.

He said that as part of the plea-bargain agreement with the oil company, the government demanded that a top Chevron executive be in the courtroom.

“We wanted a top decision-maker in the courtroom to let it be known in no uncertain terms that corporate decisions cannot be measured in just dollars and cents,” Lincenberg said after the penalty hearing.

“They will be held accountable for committing crimes against the environment,” he said.

Chevron is expected to pay an additional $1.5 million in civil penalties in about two weeks, he added.

Jerry Ross, a Chevron attorney in San Francisco, where the company is based, said the firm also wanted to have Galvin in the courtroom.

“He felt his appearance in court would demonstrate the company’s commitment to environmental matters,” said Ross, who is environmental counsel for the firm.

As a result of the case, Ross said, Chevron has overhauled its training procedures across the nation “so that (employees) understand what conduct is required of them and so that they comply with environmental laws.

“We’ve taken it seriously to ensure that this type of thing does not reoccur.”

The company agreed to plead guilty to the violations in May, after a four-year federal investigation.

Platform worker Scott McDonald became known as the Chevron whistle-blower for informing federal officials in late 1986 that waste water was not being treated or tested properly before being discharged into the ocean.

McDonald was later fired, but the company claims it had nothing to do with the information McDonald provided to federal authorities.