Texas oil wholesaler, officials plead guilty to drinking water charges

A Texas oil wholesaler and two of its executives pleaded guilty to violating the federal safe drinking water law, the US Department of Justice said.

Texas Oil and Gathering Inc., its owner John Kessel and its operations manager Edgar Pettijohn pleaded guilty on Apr. 16 to violating the Safe Drinking Water Act for disposing of oil-contaminated wastewater from its refinery process at an underground injection well permitted to accept wastes only from exploration and production operations, DOJ's Environment and Natural Resources Division said.

It said that the Alvin, Tex.-based company also pleaded guilty to conspiracy and violating the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) for disposing of waste at a facility which did not have a permit. The crimes took place from January 2000 through January 2003, DOJ said.

The defendants misrepresented that wastewater it was disposing at a Rosasharon, Tex., injection well came from an oil well the company had leased and was developing, when it actually came from various refinery and chemical liquids Texas Oil and Gathering had reclaimed, federal prosecutors said.

The government began to investigate after the well exploded and killed three workers. Although the defendants did not cause the blast, a closer review of waste in the well led to their prosecution, DOJ said.

It said that Texas Oil and Gathering faces a maximum $500,000 fine or twice the monetary gain or loss for the conspiracy count, and $50,000 per day, twice the gain or loss, or $500,000, whichever is higher, for the RCRA count. Kessel and Pettijohn face up to eight years in prison and a fine of up to $500,000, it added.

The pleas were entered in federal district court for Texas's southern district. Judge Keith P. Ellison scheduled sentencing for Sept. 15.

Contact Nick Snow at [email protected]