A Long Beach-based company
has agreed to pay $1.75 million to settle a criminal case involving a 2010 oil spill
at the Port of Los Angeles, the largest such monetary settlement ever obtained by
the city of Los Angeles for an oil spill violation.
Under the agreement, Crimson
Pipeline Management must not only pay the restitution, which will be split between
Los Angeles and state agencies, but also set up an environmental compliance program;
allow for federal, state, and city regulatory agencies to conduct yearly inspections
and oversee any significant repair or construction on all Crimson pipelines in Los
Angeles County; and establish procedures for immediate reporting of any spill, of
any quantity, whether inland or into California waters.
Law enforcement first became
aware of the pipeline breach on Dec. 21, 2010, when significant amounts of oil seeped
into the Dominguez Channel during a large storm event. Investigators eventually
found that the oil that entered the channel came from Crimson Pipeline.
The California Department
of Fish and Game and Los Angeles Watershed Protection Division also discovered the
cause of the spill was a gash in the protective casing surrounding the pipeline.
The gash was wrapped, and
the carrier pipe inside the casing was pulled from the ground in October 2011.
Two months later, the LA
City Attorney’s Office filed a 61-count complaint against Crimson alleging that
the company and its operators unlawfully caused, allowed, permitted, and contributed
to the discharge of large quantities of oil into the storm drain system, which led
into Dominguez Channel and Port of LA waters.
