Chevron to pay six-figure settlement for decades-long oil leak in Hampden (Maine)

[Maine-ah]

Source: BDN

HAMPDEN, Maine — For several decades last century, thousands of gallons of oil leaked into the Penobscot River from storage tanks at the former Chevron facility near the Bangor city line. On Friday, state officials will release details of a six-figure settlement with the oil company, the second-largest environmental penalty in Maine history.

“It was a chronic, ongoing kind of thing,” Barbara Parker, the Maine Department of Environmental Protection’s director of response services, said of the oil seepage, which released more than 140,000 gallons of oil into the river from the 1940s to the 1980s. “A lot of oil had spilled over there.”

The inactive oil terminal contains four above-ground storage tanks that were operated for decades by Chevron, which last owned the property in 1986. The site is now owned by Gulf Oil Corp.

“Site assessment and remediation activities were initiated at the site in 1984 because of occasional petroleum sheens observed on the Penobscot River,” a Maine DEP document states.

Read more: http://bangordailynews.com/2011/07/13/news/bangor/chevron-to-pay-six-figure-settlement-for-decades-long-oil-leak-in-hampden/

[No Elephants]

1. Only six figures? Are you kidding me? Who negotiated this settlement, the law firm

of Capitulation & Surrender?

[Maine-ah]

2. no, shit, right?!

they have paid for other things to help control the mess they created years ago. Barriers that they spent millions of dollars on...etc...

We'll hear friday as to exactly how much they're going to be paying.

[Scuba]

3. Chevron's legal fees likely exceeded the fine. What bullshit.

[plumbob]

4. Lessee, 6 figures, $100,000 to $999,999 for 70 years of pollution.

$1500 to $14,000+ per year.

Pffft. A half to a whole minimum wage worker each year.

Why bother to have a department of Environmental Protection at all?

[GreenPartyVoter]

5. Wow. I'm totally underwhelmed.

Poor river!

[Hotler]

6. If you start jailing the CEO's this shit would stop. n/t