All News Releases By Date

EPA SETTLES WITH TEXACO FOR $848,622

Release Date: 3/26/2002
Contact Information: DOJ (202) 514-2007, www.usdoj.gov , Wendy L. Chavez, (415) 947-4248, www.epa.gov

     SAN FRANCISCO   The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency  and the Department of Justice today announced a $848,622 settlement with Texaco Exploration and Production, Inc. for dozens of oil and other spills and related violations at its oil and gas field on the Navajo Nation in Aneth, Utah.
                               
     The settlement includes a $369,922 penalty and two environmental projects totaling $478,700.   The environmental projects were recommended by the Navajo Nation Environmental Protection Agency and the local community.  Texaco is also required to spend about $1.2 million over three years to improve its operational practices at the oil field.

     One of the environmental projects under the settlement provides for the construction of  a potable water extension that will provide drinking water and sanitation facilities to a number of local Navajo Nation residents.   Other local residents will be served by a water supply station that Texaco will construct as the second of its environmental projects.  According to the NNEPA, some local residents currently drive 50 miles to get drinking water.

     "Companies not in compliance with environmental regulations not only pollute the environment, but gain an unfair competitive advantage," said Wayne Nastri, the EPA's regional administrator for the Pacific Southwest office.  "This settlement levels the playing field, ensures that Texaco will operate its field in an environmentally responsible manner, and also provides clean, accessible drinking water for families who have gone for much too long without."

     "The Justice Department is committed to vigorously enforcing the federal Clean Water Act," said Tom Sansonetti, Assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department's Environment and Natural Resources Division.  "This case demonstrates our commitment to protecting the San Juan River tributaries, and the people of the Navajo Nation who live near them, from environmental harm."

     In filing suit, the EPA claimed that between December 1991 and January 1998 there were approximately 88 spills at the Aneth oil field that reached tributaries of the San Juan River, a violation of the federal Clean Water Act.
                                                                     
     Texaco's violations include:
                                                                                                                                            unauthorized discharge of oil and oil and water mixture into the Montezuma Creek and
other tributaries of the San Juan River
                                                                                                                                            failure to prepare and fully implement an adequate spill prevention and control plan
                                                                                                                                            discharge of oil and oil and water mixture in harmful quantities
                                                                                                                                            failure to notify the EPA of discharge events

       NNEPA contacted the EPA in 1995 regarding Texaco's spills.  The EPA and NNEPA began investigating the spills and the EPA took administrative enforcement in 1996.  The EPA later sued in March 1998.
                                 
     Texaco's oil field is located on lands leased from the Navajo Nation. The oil production fields lay adjacent and north of the San Juan River in southeast Utah.  Montezuma Creek, a tributary to the San Juan River, runs through Texaco's oil fields from north to south.