Bill Making It Harder to Prosecute for Oil Spills Gains

Over opposition by county district attorneys and environmentalists, a bill won Assembly committee approval Tuesday making it harder to prosecute companies responsible for oil spills.

The measure, (SB 649) by state Sen. Jim Costa (D-Fresno), has already passed the Senate and is expected to be received favorably by the more business-friendly Assembly.

It was approved by the Assembly Water, Parks and Wildlife Committee by a vote of 7 to 2.

A spokesman for Gov. Pete Wilson said aides were working with Costa to resolve concerns raised by the Department of Fish and Game.

Industry backers said the bill brings fairness to the process of dealing with spills, allowing oil companies to avoid prosecution if they clean up the mess quickly, before damage spreads into waterways or storm drains.

Costa said his measure makes changes in the manner in which district attorneys may respond to an oil spill but does so “without compromising existing law. It still makes it a crime to discharge spills into state waters,” he said.

The measure brings “balance to the harm done to business and to the environment” in the aftermath of a spill, Costa testified.

But Mike Bradley, Ventura County district attorney, speaking for a statewide association of prosecutors, called the measure “a special bill of the worst kind.”

Specifically, Bradley and other opponents, including environmental groups, said the bill would strip prosecutors of the legal tools they need to hold oil companies responsible for spills they cause.

It would place restrictions on district attorneys’ ability to obtain court injunctions requiring companies to avoid spill hazards, give judges new discretion in finding fault for a spill and broaden the power of local authorities to grant permits to companies to discharge waste.

A Los Angeles deputy city attorney, Vince Sato, said that if the measure had been in effect in 1988, when a Mobil pipeline rupture sent oil oozing through the streets of Encino, no prosecution of the company would have been possible.

But Ed Manning, a lawyer and lobbyist for the Western States Petroleum Assn., disputed that claim. He that said companies’ liability would remain in full force when a spill occurs and that the Costa bill would block a criminal prosecution only in some strictly defined cases.

Civil penalties of up to $25,000 still would apply, he said. “It’s not a sky-is-falling situation,” he said.

But Bradley said the choice for lawmakers was to vote “to protect California’s water, or you can vote for special interest legislation for big corporations. I ask you to vote for clean water and let big oil take care of itself.”

According to the public interest group Common Cause, large oil companies and the petroleum association spent more than $9 million lobbying California lawmakers in 1994 and the first half of 1995.