Exxon Settles Water District Pollution Suit
Water providers in South Lake Tahoe have negotiated a $12-million settlement from Exxon Corp. in a suit saying oil refineries, fuel distributors and service stations polluted Tahoe’s ground water with the gasoline additive MTBE.
The South Lake Public Utility District filed suit in 1998 against 31 defendants--including four major Bay Area refineries--to recoup an estimated $45 million to $50 million for cleaning up underground plumes of MTBE that contaminated water supplies and forced the closure of 12 of 34 water wells in the Tahoe basin.
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