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Texas Petroleum Investment Company Fined for a Second Time for Violating the Clean Water Act

Release Date: 09/27/2011
Contact Information: Dave Bary or Joe Hubbard at 214-665-2200 or [email protected]

(DALLAS – September 27, 2011) The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has fined the Texas Petroleum Investment Company of Houston, Texas, $134,895 for violating federal Spill Prevention Control and Countermeasure (SPCC) regulations outlined under the Clean Water Act.

A federal inspection of the company’s Hackberry Field Tank Battery #5, an onshore oil production facility in Cameron Parish, Louisiana, revealed the company had failed to prepare and implement SPCC plans as required by federal regulations. Another federal inspection of the company’s Romere Pass Tank Battery, an onshore and offshore production facility in Plaquemines Parish also found the company had failed to prepare and implement SPCC plans at that location.

Today’s announcement also settles Clean Water Act violations for discharges of oil into Black Lake in Cameron Parish and discharges of oil into Romere Pass and Main Pass, both in Plaquemines Parish.

In August 2011, EPA announced the company had been fined $163,487 for Clean Water Act violations found at its oil production facilities in Terrebonne, Plaquemines, Lafourche, St. Charles and Iberia parishes and for unauthorized discharges of oil into wetland areas and unnamed canals in Terrebonne, Plaquemines and Iberia parishes.

SPCC regulations require onshore and offshore oil production and bulk storage facilities to provide oil spill prevention, preparedness and responses to prevent oil discharges. The SPCC program helps to protect our nation’s water quality. A spill of only one gallon of oil can contaminate one million gallons of water.

Additional information on SPCC regulations is available at https://www.epa.gov/oilspill

More about activities in EPA Region 6 is available at https://www.epa.gov/aboutepa/region6.html

EPA audio file is available at https://www.epa.gov/region6/6xa/podcast/sep2011.html