Texaco Subsidiary Fined $4 Million in Pollution Cases

A Texaco subsidiary pleaded guilty Monday to two felony charges and was fined $4 million for discharging millions of gallons of polluted waste water into the Dominguez Channel near its Wilmington refinery and into a creek in San Luis Obispo.

Roger Hadley, a vice president of Texaco Refining and Marketing Inc. of Houston, entered the company’s plea to violating the federal Clean Water Act during a hearing before U.S. District Judge Margaret Morrow.

Hadley declined an invitation to address the court before sentencing, telling Morrow, “I have no comment, your honor.”

Texaco’s guilty plea grew out of a four-year investigation by 15 federal, state and local agencies into operations at the company’s Wilmington refinery, a longtime target of environmental critics.

The refinery, located on Pacific Coast Highway, was found to have discharged excessively high levels of oily and greasy waste water through an outfall into the nearby channel.

Under local environmental regulations, Texaco was permitted to release 15 parts of oil and grease per million gallons of water into the channel. But investigators discovered that the company was discharging 940 parts of pollutants per million, about 62 times the allowed limit, said Assistant U.S. Atty. William W. Carter.

Carter said the violations occurred in 1995 when Texaco experienced problems with a new waste-water treatment system at the refinery. Rather than shutting down operations, the company continued to flush millions of gallons of waste water into the channel.

However, Carter acknowledged in court Monday that Texaco’s illegal discharges had caused no long-term damage to the already severely polluted Dominguez Channel.

The channel, which runs from Carson to the harbor, has been a receptacle for urban runoff and industrial waste for decades. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the state Regional Water Quality Control Board have identified Dominguez Channel as one of the most severely polluted waterways in Los Angeles County.

Today, there is an effort to restore the waterway, including more stringent government standards to reduce discharges that are toxic to aquatic life.

On Monday, Steve Fleischli, executive director of Santa Monica BayKeeper, an environmental group, praised the government’s prosecution of Texaco. BayKeeper and other environmental groups have worked to clean up the channel.

“I’m glad the company is accepting responsibility,” Fleischli said. “It’s better for the environment than having people fight about it for years and years. I hope the case will change practices at the facilities and within the industry.”

The Texaco subsidiary also admitted discharging 2,000 to 8,000 gallons of petroleum-contaminated waste water into a San Luis Obispo storm drain that ran into Prefumo Creek and then into the Pacific Ocean. The contaminated water was pumped from tanks at a Texaco-owned service station.

Under a plea agreement negotiated with prosecutors and ratified by Morrow, Texaco Refining and Marketing will pay $4 million as a fine and up to $30,000 in restitution.

Most of the fine, $3 million, will be earmarked for environmental projects.

The offenses occurred while the refinery was under the ownership of Texaco. It is now owned by Equilon Enterprises, a joint venture of Texaco and Shell Oil.