Delaware Water Pollution Case

Delaware Water Pollution Case



October 2007

 Texaco and its successor 
corporation Motiva Enterprises have settled a legal battle with two 
environmental groups that lasted nearly 20 years by agreeing to fund $2.25 
million in environmental benefit projects in the Delaware City area. 
Days before a contempt trial, the company reached a settlement agreement 
Thursday with the Natural Resources Defense Council, NRDC, and Delaware 
Audubon Society for repeated violations of water pollution permits and 
court orders. 
U.S. District Court Judge Sue Robinson in Wilmington stayed the trial that 
was to begin October 1 after attorneys notified her of a settlement in 
principle. 
"Texaco waged a war of attrition, clearly expecting that NRDC and Delaware 
Audubon would blink first," said NRDC attorney Mitchell Bernard. "But for 
20 years, we didn’t give up and we didn’t go away. Today we are holding 
Texaco accountable for its environmental lawbreaking, and making sure that 
they do right by the communities that have had to live with Texaco’s 
pollution." 
More than $1 million will go to Delaware State Parks projects including 
reforestation, invasive species control, and installation of a remote 
camera and video display terminals at the Pea Patch Island Heronry. The 
sum of $675,000 will be provided to Main Street Delaware City, Inc. to 
support several projects under their ecotourism program, including a 
recreational trail along the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal. 
The groups had taken Texaco to court five separate times over the past two 
decades to stop the oil company from polluting the Delaware River with 
discharges from its Delaware City Refinery, which is now owned by Valero. 
The original legal action was filed against Texaco in 1988 by Delaware 
Audubon and NRDC as a citizen lawsuit under the federal Clean Water Act 
for water discharge violations at the Delaware City Refinery. 
NRDC and Delaware Audubon won the first of three court trials against 
Texaco in 1992, after NRDC scientists uncovered evidence from the oil 
company's internal reports that it had been knowingly discharging oil, 
grease and other highly toxic pollutants into the Delaware since 1983, in 
excess of what its permit allowed. 
A federal judge, calling the case "practically unassailable," determined 
that Texaco had violated the Clean Water Act on a total 3,360 days. 
The company was ordered to pay a fine of $1.68 million, to fully comply 
with water pollution laws and to ascertain the damage it had caused to the 
fragile Delaware River ecosystem. Over the next 15 years, Delaware Audubon 
and NRDC took Texaco back to court repeatedly to enforce the terms of the 
original court orders. 
Today’s settlement stems from a contempt motion filed against Texaco by 
the two groups in 2005. The contempt motion alleged the oil giant violated 
elements of a court order requiring the company to study the impacts of 
its unlawful pollution discharges on the Delaware River. 
Under the pressure of an imminent trial, Texaco reached a settlement. The 
settlement agreement signed by Motiva president and chief executive 
William Welte will end the lawsuit. 
"The areas around Delaware City represent some of the most important 
ecosystems in the state and the region," said Nick DiPasquale, 
conservation chair for Delaware Audubon. 
"Over the past half century, this area has suffered significantly as a 
result of environmental assaults from the Delaware City industrial 
complex. Nonetheless, these ecosystems have survived," he said. "The 
environmental projects funded by this settlement will go a long way toward 
restoring the ecology of the area and enhancing public access to some of 
Delaware’s most remarkable natural resources." 

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