Exxon Faces Criminal Counts in Gasoline Spill

The state Fish and Game Department and the Orange County district attorney’s office have filed criminal charges against Exxon U.S.A. in connection with a 276-gallon gasoline spill into a tributary of Upper Newport Bay.

Exxon earlier was fined $2,760 by a state water quality board for the discharge into an Irvine flood control channel last September.

Continuing a get-tough stance toward polluters in Orange County, Fish and Game Warden Darryl Avila said Wednesday that separate criminal charges were filed against the company and an employee who was at the scene of the spill because the incident was considered an aggravated case of “intentional pollution.�

The spilled gasoline apparently killed 100 minnows and crayfish in the flood control channel and further downstream in San Diego Creek, Avila said.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Diane Stavenhagen Kadletz said Exxon officials have been ordered to appear for arraignment March 13 in Central Municipal Court in Santa Ana. Pollution of state waterways under the Fish and Game code is a misdemeanor punishable by a maximum fine of $2,000 and one year in jail.

Exxon officials have contended that the spill was unintentional. The company waived its right to a hearing on the Santa Ana Regional Water Quality Control Board charge and paid the fine.

The incident began about 11 a.m. Sept. 5, when an underground turbine pump failure sent 276 gallons of unleaded fuel gushing over the grounds of an Exxon service station at MacArthur Boulevard and Red Hill Avenue.

Avila said the gasoline was hosed down street gutters into a nearby storm drain leading to the Lane Flood Control Channel, which flows into environmentally sensitive Upper Newport Bay by way of San Diego Creek.

He said station attendants did not report the incident on the advice of an Exxon sales representative who happened to be at the site. Avila said more than two hours passed before an unidentified citizen, noticing strong odors in the channel, called the county Fire Department.

Once notified of the spill, Exxon’s Houston office dispatched a local cleanup crew, but not before the fuel spilled into the bay, Avila said.

Action was being taken against the corporation rather than the individual station operator, Avila said, “because there was an Exxon representative on the site who advised (the operator) to hose the gasoline into the gutter and not to notify authorities, which in my eyes makes Exxon directly responsible.�

“If he was not there, (the operator) would probably have done the proper thing and called the Fire Department.� The complaint also names the sales representative, William Groom.

After the fine was imposed Feb. 14, Exxon spokeswoman Barbara Maginn said station personnel were trying to avert an explosion when they hosed the fuel into a storm drain. She said they were unaware that the drain emptied into a flood control channel.

Avila said an effort also will be made to recover expenses of agencies responding to the spill, totaling about $3,600.