{"id":17001,"date":"2024-11-21T23:16:11","date_gmt":"2024-11-22T00:16:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=17001"},"modified":"2024-11-22T00:24:20","modified_gmt":"2024-11-22T00:24:20","slug":"phillips-66-is-accused-of-violating-the-clean-water-act","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=17001","title":{"rendered":"Phillips 66 Is Accused of Violating the Clean Water Act"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The oil company was indicted on charges of dumping nearly 800,000 gallons of contaminated wastewater into the Los Angeles County sewer system.<\/p>\n

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A federal grand jury on Wednesday indicted Phillips 66 on charges of violating the Clean Water Act by dumping nearly 800,000 gallons of contaminated wastewater into the Los Angeles County sewer system and failing to report the incident to authorities.<\/p>\n

The Houston-based oil company was charged with releasing wastewater that contained excessive amounts of oil and grease from a refinery in Carson, Calif., in 2020 and 2021, the Justice Department<\/a> said Thursday.<\/p>\n

\u201cProtecting our environment is key to protecting our community,\u201d Martin Estrada, the U.S. attorney for the Central District of California, said in a statement. \u201cJust like the rest of us, corporations have a duty to follow the law, so when companies contaminate, they must be held accountable.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Justice Department charged Phillips 66 with two counts of negligently violating the Clean Water Act and four counts of knowingly violating the act. The company faces up to five years of probation on each count and a maximum of $2.4 million in fines.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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A spokesman for the company, Thaddeus Herrick, said Phillips 66 \u201cwill continue its cooperation with the U.S. attorney\u2019s office and is prepared to present its case in these matters in court.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe company remains committed to operating safely and protecting the health and safety of our employees and the communities where we operate,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The Justice Department accused Phillips 66 of discharging contaminated wastewater on two occasions.<\/p>\n

For over two and half hours on Nov. 24, 2020, the indictment said, the Carson oil refinery released 310,000 gallons of wastewater containing about 64,000 pounds of oil and grease. The oil-and-grease concentration of the water was about 300 times the amount allowed under the company\u2019s permit.<\/p>\n

On Feb. 8, 2021, the facility discharged 480,000 gallons of wastewater containing about 33,700 pounds of oil and grease over five and a half hours, the indictment said.<\/p>\n

Mr. Estrada said on a call with reporters that investigators believed that the Los Angeles County wastewater treatment plant was able to capture all of the contaminated water before it was released, like most treated water, into the Pacific Ocean.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Still, \u201cthat\u2019s not how it\u2019s supposed to work,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He said the violation had come to light because staff at the water treatment facility smelled oil.<\/p>\n

Last month, Phillips 66 said it would close the 101-year-old Carson oil refinery, as well as a 105-year-old facility in nearby Wilmington, Calif., in the fourth quarter of 2025, citing \u201cmarket dynamics.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hiroko Tabuchi contributed reporting.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The oil company was indicted on charges of dumping nearly 800,000 gallons of contaminated wastewater into the Los Angeles County sewer system.A federal grand jury on Wednesday indicted Phillips 66 on charges of violating the Clean Water Act by dumping nearly 800,000 gallons of contaminated wastewater into the Los Angeles County sewer system and failing to report the incident to authorities.The Houston-based oil company was charged with releasing wastewater that contained excessive amounts of oil and grease from a refinery in Carson, Calif., in 2020 and 2021, the Justice Department said Thursday.\u201cProtecting our environment is key to protecting our community,\u201d Martin Estrada, the U.S. attorney for the Central District of California, said in a statement. \u201cJust like the rest of us, corporations have a duty to follow the law, so when companies contaminate, they must be held accountable.\u201dThe Justice Department charged Phillips 66 with two counts of negligently violating the Clean Water Act and four counts of knowingly violating the act. The company faces up to five years of probation on each count and a maximum of $2.4 million in fines.A spokesman for the company, Thaddeus Herrick, said Phillips 66 \u201cwill continue its cooperation with the U.S. attorney\u2019s office and is prepared to present its case in these matters in court.\u201d\u201cThe company remains committed to operating safely and protecting the health and safety of our employees and the communities where we operate,\u201d he said.The Justice Department accused Phillips 66 of discharging contaminated wastewater on two occasions.For over two and half hours on Nov. 24, 2020, the indictment said, the Carson oil refinery released 310,000 gallons of wastewater containing about 64,000 pounds of oil and grease. The oil-and-grease concentration of the water was about 300 times the amount allowed under the company\u2019s permit.On Feb. 8, 2021, the facility discharged 480,000 gallons of wastewater containing about 33,700 pounds of oil and grease over five and a half hours, the indictment said.Mr. Estrada said on a call with reporters that investigators believed that the Los Angeles County wastewater treatment plant was able to capture all of the contaminated water before it was released, like most treated water, into the Pacific Ocean.Still, \u201cthat\u2019s not how it\u2019s supposed to work,\u201d he said.He said the violation had come to light because staff at the water treatment facility smelled oil.Last month, Phillips 66 said it would close the 101-year-old Carson oil refinery, as well as a 105-year-old facility in nearby Wilmington, Calif., in the fourth quarter of 2025, citing \u201cmarket dynamics.\u201dHiroko Tabuchi<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":17003,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17001","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17001","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17001"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17001\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17004,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17001\/revisions\/17004"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/17003"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17001"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17001"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17001"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}