The U.S. Justice Department reports five oil companies have agreed to clean up an abandoned oil reclaiming site near Glenrock, Wyo.
Texaco Refining & Marketing Inc., Conoco Pipe Line Co., Eighty-Eight Oil Co., True Oil Co., and Phillips Petroleum Co. also win pay a combined $300,000 civil penalty for alleged violations of Environmental Protection Agency administrative orders under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA).
Justice said cleaning up the facility, known as Power River Crude Processors or Big Muddy Oil Processors, will cost $4.4-8.9 million.
Justice said pen sludge pits killed birds, and there were leaking tanks, seeps, and spins at the site.
Lois Schiffer, an attorney in justice's environment and natural resources division, said, "This settlement is a good example of how polluters whose actions hurt the environment must pay for their actions. The cleanup will repair the environmental damage, and the penalty should deter other polluters as well."
William Yellowtail, EPA regional administrator, said the case is the first brought under the government's contention that RCRA can be used to deal with oily wastes that may escape controls under other laws.
The settlement resolves a suit justice and EPA filed in Casper, Wyo., federal court in 1993 against the five oil companies and five other defendants.
Litigation continues against Jim's Water Service Inc., Gillette, Wyo.; Dale Valentine, Valentine Construction Co. Inc., and William Valentine & Sons Inc., an of Glenrock, Wyo.; and Richard Wallace, Denver.
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