Newsroom
All News Releases By Date
Tesoro to Settle Complaint
Release Date: 9/15/1997
Contact Information: David Allnutt
[email protected]
(206) 553-2581 or 1 (800) 424-4372
September 15, 1997 - - - - - - - - 97-61
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
A total of $135,000 in civil penalties will be paid by the Tesoro Alaska Petroleum Company to settle a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency complaint that the firm's Kenai Peninsula refinery violated terms of its federal environmental permits, according to an agreement announced today by EPA.
Tesoro neither admitted nor denied EPA's allegations.
The company agreed to pay $100,000 so that EPA would dismiss its allegations of repeated violations of Tesoro's wastewater discharge permit issued by EPA.
Between July 1992 and February 1997, according to the complaint, Tesoro's discharges to Cook Inlet repeatedly exceeded the limits set by its EPA wastewater permit. The 345 alleged permit violations included excessive ammonia, phenols, total suspended solids, and concentrations of total petroleum hydrocarbons. Tesoro's discharges were also said by the complaint to be overly alkaline or that they placed too heavy an oxygen demand on the water in Cook Inlet. Most of the alleged violations involved total petroleum hydrocarbons, with concentrations ranging as high as five times the limits allowed by Tesoro's permit.
Tesoro agreed to pay $35,000 to settle the portion of the EPA complaint alleging that the Kenai refinery's oily water sewer system released approximately 390,000 gallons to the environment throughout much of 1996 without reporting the release to EPA as its permit requires. According to the complaint, Tesoro knew of the leak from at least as early as June 1996, but did not report it to EPA until last February.
The soil into which the liquid leaked is currently undergoing cleanup. The liquid contained benzene (a known human carcinogen) and toluene in concentrations that could threaten human health or the environment.
#
Search this collection of releases | or search all news releases
View selected historical press releases from 1970 to 1998 in the EPA History website.
