Unocal Donates $5.6 Million for Research Into Oil Spill Cleanup

Unocal Corp. has donated $5.6 million to Cal Poly San Luis Obispo for research into restoring sites contaminated by petroleum.

The gift was presented Thursday to Cal Poly’s Environmental Biotechnology Institute, a public-private partnership run by Cal Poly. Unocal helped launch the institute in 1996 with a $1.3-million grant.

The institute, a collaborative research project aimed at developing environmentally sensitive technology to aid petroleum companies in restoring contaminated sites, is part of Cal Poly’s College of Science and Mathematics.

The donation will help fund construction of facilities within Cal Poly’s new science and mathematics building and endow the Unocal Chair for Environmental Studies occupied by scientist Raul Cano.

Unocal has a long history of oil drilling along the Central Coast near Cal Poly, about 150 miles northwest of Los Angeles. Oil leaking from pipelines contaminated a large portion of downtown Avila Beach, forcing Unocal to embark on a cleanup estimated at $100 million.

“With our new partnership, we can help fund continued research efforts that will benefit environmental restoration worldwide as well as educate the next generation of scientists,” said Mark Smith, vice president for real estate, remediation services and mining operations for Unocal.