Federal Suit Politically Motivated, Chevron Says

Responding to a U.S. Justice Department lawsuit accusing the Chevron oil refinery in El Segundo of dumping excessive amounts of pollutants into Santa Monica Bay, the oil company charged Wednesday that the government had “seriously misled” the public by making a “politically motivated, inflammatory announcement” too late on Tuesday for an “adequate” response.

“The U.S. attorney’s office released information late yesterday to the news media,” said Ed Wagner, Chevron U.S.A.’s environmental manager in El Segundo. “We believe they timed their announcement to ensure that we would not be able to adequately respond to media and public questions with complete information.

“Worse yet, their announcement implies that Chevron is responsible for all that ails Santa Monica Bay. They’re well aware that the vast majority of problems in the bay are attributable to pesticides, PCBs and municipal sewage, none of which come from our El Segundo refinery’s discharges.”

U.S. Atty. Robert C. Bonner said Chevron’s accusation was unfounded and denied that there was any political motivation to the lawsuit, which seeks fines of up to $8.8 million and charges that the Chevron refinery has dumped excessive amounts of oil, grease, ammonia and other pollutants into the bay on 880 occasions during the last five years.

“The lawsuit was disclosed at 11 a.m.,” Bonner said. “It wasn’t late in the day. We certainly did not say Chevron is responsible for all that ails Santa Monica Bay, but the lawsuit does say they certainly are a contributor to what ails the bay.”

In the company’s response to the lawsuit, which was brought by the Justice Department and the Environmental Protection Agency, Chevron said the discharge from sewage treatment plants in Los Angeles is “more than 100 times” the volume of Chevron’s discharge.

Wagner said that while the lawsuit cites times when pollutant discharges exceeded daily limits, the refinery’s annual average discharge is 28% under the limit for oil and grease, 80% under for ammonia and “about 40% under for other substances.”