Unocal Corp. will pay $5.5 million to settle lawsuits stemming from alleged violations of its waste water discharge permit at its San Francisco refinery.
In addition to settling suits filed by the California Regional Water Quality Control Board (RWB) for the San Francisco region and the Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund, a related lawsuit in a Sacramento appellate court will be dismissed under the agreement.
SETTLEMENT DETAILS
Under the settlement, Unocal will pay $2.72 million to the Trust for Public Land (TPL), $1 million to the state Department of Justice (DOJ), and $500,000 to California's Water Pollution Cleanup and Abatement Account (Wpcaa).
In addition, it will pay the Sierra Club LDF $1.33 million to cover the organization's costs related to the lawsuit. The LDF litigates on behalf of other environmental groups in addition to the Sierra Club.
The TPL will use its settlement funds for acquisition, interim protection, restoration, and enhancement of wetlands and uplands adjacent to San Francisco Bay.
DOJ will use its payment to establish the Ocean Site Designation Fund for studies related to disposal of dredge spoils from San Francisco Bay.
Wpcaa's award will go to the state Water Quality Control Fund to defray cost of responses to pollution of state waters.
The settlement decree quashes all claims and does not constitute an admission of liability by Unocal. The case began in 1984 with allegations that Unocal violated its National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (Npdes) permit at the refinery.
UNOCAL'S STANCE
Unocal has maintained that most of the violations occurred because of a misunderstanding over the Npdes permit. The company said routing water around the biological treatment system in its waste water treatment plant was not a prohibited bypass and therefore not reportable to the RWB.
The bypassed water was treated elsewhere in the plant and, once combined with biologically treated water, was sampled to ensure against permit violations for discharge into San Pablo Bay, Unocal said.
The company said it told RWB of this procedure several times in 1978-84, but it was not notified by the board that the practice was unacceptable until May 14, 1985.
Thereupon, the company immediately changed its operations to comply with RWB rules. In addition, Unocal completed installation of a $64 million waste water treatment system at the refinery in February 1989.
The new biological treatment plant, designed to meet still tougher Npdes permit limits, uses best available control technology and has a capacity almost triple that of the old system.
Further, Unocal doubled its untreated water storage capacity at the refinery.
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