Texaco OKs Settlement Over Spills : Environment: The company agrees to pay $195,000 but admits no wrongdoing. Suit alleges it soiled streams in hills above Ventura River.

Oil giant Texaco agreed Tuesday to pay $195,000 in fees and penalties to settle a civil lawsuit alleging that the company spilled thousands of gallons of crude oil and tainted water into western Ventura County streams.

Company executives admitted no wrongdoing in the case.

But prosecutors say Texaco Exploration & Production Inc. is responsible for nine spills that soiled creeks and streams throughout the hills above the Ventura River between May, 1993, and August, 1994.

“It was a pretty serious incident in that in the space of a little over a year there were nine spills on their facilities,” Deputy Dist. Atty. Christopher S. Harman said Tuesday.

“Precautions weren’t taken that could have been taken.”

The settlement calls for Texaco to pay $150,000 in civil penalties, $33,000 in investigation costs and attorney fees, and $12,000 to an environmental enhancement fund administered by the state District Attorneys Assn.

Company officials said Tuesday that while numerous, the spills caused minimal damage to the environment and posed no threat to residents of the Ventura River valley.

“We operate our facilities in as proactive a manner as we can from an environmental standpoint,” spokesman Phil Blackburn said. “Our records in those fields are good records.”

Texaco operated a total of six oil fields over the 15 months that the spills are alleged to have occurred, producing as many as 5,300 barrels of crude oil each day.

Since August, the company has mined just two fields and reduced its Ventura County production to about 4,200 barrels daily.

State Department of Fish and Game wardens investigated the nine spills for months before forwarding their case to local prosecutors, who filed the complaint and announced the settlement Tuesday, Harman said.

Investigators concluded that Texaco failed to maintain its equipment and was unaware of potential problems due to a lack of adequate maintenance, prosecutors said.

For instance, excess pipeline pressure caused more than 7,700 gallons of thick crude oil and an unknown amount of water to spill into a containment area off North Ventura Avenue on Aug. 4, the complaint alleges.

But the containment area was not large enough to control that much oil and water, and the product overflowed through a culvert into School Canyon Creek, the suit said.

“If they know that’s where it’s supposed to overflow, the containment area should be sufficient to contain a spill,” Harman said.

Another spill three weeks later leaked 200 gallons of crude oil into Hall Canyon Creek in the hills above downtown Ventura after the containment system failed. “There was an open storm drain within the containment area,” Harman said.

Blackburn said he could not address individual spills. But he defended Texaco’s record as among the best in the area.

“When you look at the overall picture, in the long history of producing in that field, we have had very few incidents of this kind,” Blackburn said. “And in each case, remediation was prompt and quick.”

But some environmental activists criticized the settlement as too lenient.

“It represents what the business community considers a reasonable termination of a suit involving wrongdoing,” said Russ Baggerly, an Ojai Valley resident active in environmental issues.

“If the people of California or Ventura County believe that relaxing environmental laws will reduce these types of disasters, they are asleep at the wheel,” he said.

Oil field operations are regulated by the state Division of Oil and Gas. Pat Kinnear of that agency’s Ventura office declined to say why routine inspections of the Texaco facilities failed to expose the deficiencies.

Kinnear referred questions to a state Department of Conservation spokesman, who said the inspection process is under review.

Not addressed in the Ventura County Superior Court lawsuit and settlement is another huge spill that prosecutors say is still being investigated.

A swarm of district attorney’s investigators and other officials raided Texaco’s Ventura offices in March, 1994, looking for evidence that the company covered up a massive pipeline leak.

“That judgment and complaint is specifically exempted from this case,” Harman said. “It’s still under investigation by Fish and Game.”

Officials say that Texaco spilled as much as 370,000 gallons of a gas condensate into an underground aquifer leading to School Canyon Creek over eight months in 1993, then kept quiet about the release.

Blackburn said Tuesday his company has proof that the spill is at least a quarter-century old and was not caused by Texaco.

“We don’t know the source of the [School Canyon] spill, but we think it’s at least 25 years old,” he said. “Texaco didn’t acquire that field until 1984.”

Nonetheless, Blackburn said, Texaco is continuing its cleanup effort, which consists of a series of recovery systems that capture both the liquid and vapor byproduct trapped in an underground plume.

“To clean it up in its entirety may take several years,” he said. “In the meantime, the plume is contained within a relatively narrow area that does not pose a threat to the neighboring community.”

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Oil Spills Here is a list of the oil spills that Ventura County prosecutors have blamed on Texaco: May 2, 1993: A pipeline ruptures and spills about 950 gallons of crude oil and water into Hall Canyon Creek. June 14, 1993: An abandoned oil line ruptures due to corrosion, spilling about 85 gallons of crude oil into an unidentified stream on the Lloyd lease. The line had been abandoned since 1986, but was never properly drained. Sept. 8, 1993: A drain box ruptures, allowing more than 200 gallons of crude oil to reach an unnamed stream in Ice Box Canyon. The drain box was overgrown with brush and company officials were unaware of its existence until it began leaking. Dec. 14, 1993: An oil pipeline bursts, spilling at least 125 gallons of crude oil and as much as 4,200 gallons of processed water into School Canyon Creek. Some of the oil eventually washed into the Ventura River. Jan. 10, 1994: Two water tanks overflow, spilling about 840 gallons of liquid into a contamination area. The contamination area later overflows, spilling into School Canyon Creek. Feb. 24, 1994: Stuffing in a packing box ignites, allowing more than 200 gallons of crude oil to flow through a drainage pipe into Willard Canyon Creek. April 4, 1994: A pipeline bursts, spilling more than 40 gallons of crude oil and gas condensate into an unnamed stream in Willard Canyon. Aug. 4, 1994: Excess pipeline pressure causes a pressure-relief valve to activate, leaking about 7,800 gallons of crude oil and an undetermined amount of water into a containment area. The containment area was not large enough to capture the runoff, and it overflowed through a culvert into School Canyon Creek. Aug. 25, 1994: Excess pressure causes a pressure-relief valve to activate, spilling more than 200 gallons of crude oil into a nearby storm drain. The oil later flowed into Hall Canyon Creek.