Chevron Fined $2.25 Million for Fuel Leak

State water quality regulators fined Chevron Corp. $2.25 million Wednesday for a pipeline leak that released millions of gallons of jet fuel into the ground water beneath the company’s El Segundo refinery.

The penalty is the second largest in the history of the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board, which enforces state and federal water quality standards in Los Angeles and Ventura counties.

From early 1998 to February 1999, about 4.5 million gallons of jet fuel leaked into the Old Dune Sand Aquifer beneath the Chevron refinery at 324 W. El Segundo Blvd., board officials said. The facility, which is operated by Chevron Products Co., can process up to 380,000 barrels of crude oil a day.

“The magnitude of the release justifies the size of the fine,” said Dennis Dickerson, the water board’s executive officer. “It is clear to us that the leak should have been detected and stopped much earlier.”

Chevron officials said they were disappointed by the size of the penalty. Had the company been given a chance to further explain the leak, they said, the board might have levied a smaller fine.

“We were very surprised by the action,” said Rod Spackman, a Chevron Products Co. spokesman. “We had expected to sit down and walk the board through the issues. The information would have been helpful in clarifying the situation or the facts that were misunderstood.”

He said Chevron is considering an appeal.

Spackman said the impact on the aquifer should be minimal because the spill was confined to a small portion of the aquifer and the company has cleaned up about 60% of the jet fuel already. That aquifer is not used for drinking water.

Chevron is required to monitor the aquifer under a Cleanup and Abatement Order issued by the water quality control board in 1988 for releases of refinery products into the ground water.

Board officials said that had Chevron adequately checked its monitoring wells at the refinery, the buildup of jet fuel from the leaking pipeline might have been discovered earlier than it was.

“They should have taken stronger measures to make sure further releases didn’t occur,” Dickerson said. “They have had plenty of chances to reduce the problem. This was a release that could have been prevented entirely or reduced in scope.”

Board officials believe the discharge will delay the restoration of the aquifer for at least three years. They said the ground water already is contaminated in part by Chevron’s previous uncontrolled fuel releases.

Spackman said there were a number of factors that hampered the company’s efforts to monitor the aquifer, including the expansion of the nearby Hyperion Water Treatment Facility, which removed large amounts of water from the aquifer.

The removal of ground water during Hyperion’s construction might have caused the jet fuel to move around, making it difficult to assess, Spackman said.

This is the second time in two weeks that Chevron has faced fines over environmental problems at its El Segundo area facilities.

Last week, Chevron U.S.A. Inc. agreed to pay a record $7 million to settle a lawsuit with federal regulators who charged the company violated clean air laws at its offshore oil terminal near El Segundo.

That settlement--the largest ever under the Clean Air Act for a single facility--involved alleged abuses of a program in which companies were allowed to scrap old cars instead of installing costly equipment to reduce emissions.