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TEXACO REFINERY TO PAY $560,000 TO SETTLE ENVIRONMENTAL VIOLATIONS

Release Date: 9/22/1998
Contact Information: Dave Schmidt, U.S. EPA, (415) 744-1578

     (San Francisco) -- The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA) and the U.S. Department of Justice  today announced that Texaco's Bakersfield Refinery has agreed to pay a $560,000 civil penalty to settle alleged violations of the Clean Air Act and two other federal environmental laws, the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA)  and Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act (EPCRA).  The CERCLA and EPCRA laws require public disclosure of the amounts of toxic chemicals used, and toxic chemicals released, from any facility.  U.S. EPA's complaint and the settlement were filed in the Federal District Court for the Eastern District of California.

     This case stemmed in part from a U.S. EPA inspection of the refinery in February 1995.  In the complaint, U.S. EPA alleged that Texaco violated several reporting, testing, monitoring, and pollution control requirements of the Clean Air Act.  The settlement also involved Texaco's failure to notify the National Response Center ("NRC") or state and local authorities of its refinery's releases of hazardous and extremely hazardous chemicals in violation of CERCLA and EPCRA.  U.S. EPA also alleged that between 1993 and 1995, Texaco failed to report 14 releases of the gases hydrogen sulfide and nitrogen dioxide to the NRC, and failed to report 44 releases of sulfur dioxide, hydrogen sulfide, and nitrogen dioxide to the state and local authorities.    

     In addition, U.S. EPA alleged that Texaco violated EPCRA's reporting requirements for toxic chemicals manufactured, processed, or otherwise used at the refinery.  Texaco failed to file disclosure reports to U.S. EPA for ethylene used at the refinery from 1991 through 1994.  Finally, Texaco failed to file disclosure reports for the following substances contained in catalysts used at the refinery: copper compounds (1994); molybdenum trioxide (1991-1994); nickel compounds (1991-1994); and zinc compounds (1991 and 1993).  

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