Dive Brief:
- A Los Angeles area federal grand jury indicted oil and gas company Phillips 66 for six counts of alleged Clean Water Act violations last week, according to a Thursday release from the Department of Justice.
- The allegations include two counts of negligent violations of the Clean Water Act and four counts of knowingly violating the act, which governs water pollution in the U.S. The grand jury returned the indictments against the Houston-based energy company on Wednesday, according to the U.S. attorney’s office for the Central District of California.
- The charges are related to a pair of wastewater discharges into the Los Angeles County Sanitation District sewage system that occurred within a three-month span in 2020 and 2021. Phillips 66 faces up to $2.4 million in fines and a maximum sentence of five years probation for each charge, according to the release.
Dive Insight:
The grand jury charges stem from two multi-hour wastewater spills from Phillips 66’s oil refinery in Carson, California. The first discharge happened in November 2020, when the facility discharged around 310,000 gallons of noncompliant wastewater for two-and-a-half hours that contained around 64,000 pounds of oil and grease into the LACSD sewage. This was followed by another discharge from the Carson facility in February 2021. The facility released around 480,000 gallons of noncompliant wastewater containing an approximate 33,700 pounds of oil and grease over a five-and-a-half hour span, per the Justice Department.
LACSD issued Phillips 66 multiple violations related to the discharges in both December 2020 and March 2021, and a manager at the Carson facility acknowledged the noncompliant discharges both times, according to the Justice Department release.
“Just like the rest of us, corporations have a duty to follow the law, so when companies contaminate, they must be held accountable,” U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California Martin Estrada said in the release. “My office will continue to be vigilant in safeguarding our natural resources for all to enjoy.”
The Justice Department said the concentration of oil and grease in the 2020 wastewater discharge was more than 300 times what was allowed by the facility’s permit. A Phillips 66 manager also told LACSD it would “retrain operations personnel” on the procedures of how to respond in such a situation after the initial discharge. However, a company manager also had to acknowledge the second noncompliant discharge and failure to notify following the 2021 discharge.
Phillips 66, as a company, is expected to be arraigned in the upcoming weeks in the Los Angeles area district court. The Justice Department said the Environmental Protection Agency is investigating the matter, and the charges also relate to a failure to inform LACSD of the noncompliant wastewater discharges.
“Phillips 66 will continue its cooperation with the U.S. Attorney’s office and is prepared to present its case in these matters in court,” a company spokesperson said in an emailed statement to ESG Dive Tuesday. “The company remains committed to operating safely and protecting the health and safety of our employees and the communities where we operate.”
The charges come a month after the Texas-based energy company announced it would close its Los Angles-area oil refinery, which includes the Carson facility and a Wilmington, California facility. Phillips 66 said the facilities — which collectively employ around 600 employees and 300 contractors — will cease operations in the Q4 of 2025, according to an October release.
Phillips 66 CEO Mark Lashier said at the time that the “long-term sustainability” of the Los Angeles refinery is “uncertain and affected by market dynamics.” The firm said it will continue to work to supply energy in the state through gasoline sources both inside and outside its refining network, as well as renewable diesel and sustainable aviation fuels from its San Francisco-area renewable energy complex.
“We understand this decision has an impact on our employees, contractors and the broader community,” Lashier said in the release. “We will work to help and support them through this transition.”
