SIGNAL HILL : Oil Recycler Pleads No Contest to Illegal Storage
A Signal Hill oil recycling company pleaded no contest Tuesday to a misdemeanor charge of illegally storing about 100,000 gallons of oil-laden waste water at an abandoned Long Breach refinery and paid $60,000 in fines.
Superior Court Judge Richard F. Charvat closed the case against Petroleum Recycling Corp. after hearing testimony that the firm had removed and properly disposed of the waste in a tank at Wright Terminals in Long Beach, said Deputy Dist. Atty. Joseph P. Charney.
The former refinery and bulk-fuel storage terminal was abandoned last year, and local and state health officials have been working to clean up environmental hazards at the Spring Street site.
Virtually all of the liquid waste in the tanks of the old refinery has been removed, said Jim Ross, senior engineer with the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board, which is overseeing the cleanup.
Demolition of the old refinery and testing for soil and ground water contamination is expected to take place next year, he said.
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