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July 18, 2011

Chevron to pay $900K for oil spill

By The Mainebiz News Staff

The state has reached a $900,000 settlement with Chevron over its decades-long discharge of oil at its terminal in Hampden.

The settlement, announced Friday, is the largest environmental penalty secured by the state in 20 years, according to a press release. According to the state, Chevron released more than 140,000 gallons of oil onto the shores of the Penobscot River and failed to remove it to the satisfaction of the state. More than half the settlement, $520,000, is slated to go to the town to fund economic development efforts at the site, while the rest will go to the state's oil clean-up fund. Negotiations, however, continue between the state and Chevron to determine an additional settlement to cover the cost of environmental remediation. The Maine Department of Environmental Protection is currently overseeing a multi-million-dollar remediation at the site, and so far 2,800 tons of oil-contaminated sediment have been removed from the river and nearly 10,000 gallons of oil recovered from the site, according to the release.

Chevron USA Inc. and Texaco Inc. owned and operated two marine oil terminals in Hampden from the early 1900s through the mid-1980s, and Chevron has kept liability for oil spills at both terminals. The DEP first issued Chevron a violation notice in 2007.

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