Hahn Says Bill Would Soften Pollution Laws

Standing a few blocks from the sites of two 1988 accidents that sent crude oil oozing through the streets of Encino and Sherman Oaks and into the city sewer system, Los Angeles City Atty. James K. Hahn on Monday announced his opposition to a bill in the state Legislature that he said “would make it nearly impossible to prosecute a case like that today.”

Joined by representatives of the Sierra Club, Heal the Bay and Santa Monica BayKeeper, Hahn said the bill would reduce local prosecutors’ ability to take action against polluters who spill hazardous materials such as oil and toxic chemicals.

Sponsored by state Sen. Jim Costa (D-Fresno), the bill would amend sections of California’s Fish and Game Code that make it a crime to pollute state waters with petroleum, acid, coal tar, oil tar and other toxins.

The bill would exempt the discharge of pollutants when it is “expressly authorized pursuant to the terms of a permit issued by the State Water Resources Control Board or a regional water quality control board” and would provide a defense against such violations if the defendant took “reasonable and appropriate measures to effectively mitigate the discharge or release in a timely manner.”

Hans Hemann, speaking for the Sierra Club, called the bill “the latest attack on the environmental standards of California.”

“It changes the burden of proof requirement,” he said. “Courts will be forced to weigh the hardships of the chemical companies against the environmental damage.”

Monday’s event was held at Libbit Park in Encino, near the site of a Sept. 10, 1988, oil spill that closed a section of Ventura Boulevard. The same Bakersfield-to-Torrance pipeline owned by Mobil Oil Corp. ruptured again, 17 days after the first spill, in Sherman Oaks. The two incidents spilled 130,000 gallons of crude oil into surrounding streets and the Los Angeles River. Mobil paid $125,000 for the cleanup of the spills.

The bill is scheduled to be heard July 2 by the Assembly Water, Parks and Wildlife Committee.