Santa Monica Settles MTBE Suit With Two Companies

Date: July 18, 2002

Source: News Room

ChevronTexaco Corp. and Exxon Mobil Corp. have agreed to build a water treatment plant to clean up polluted groundwater in wells owned by the city of Santa Monica, California at a cost of up to $200 million. In a tentative settlement to a two-year-old lawsuit, ChevronTexaco and ExxonMobil agreed to pay $30 million in cash and foot the full cost of building and running a water treatment facility to clean the gasoline additive MTBE and other contaminants from the wells. In return, Santa Monica will drop the companies from its lawsuit, filed in 2000 against a group of oil manufacturers, suppliers, refiners and owners and operators of pipelines and other facilities for allegedly contributing to the pollution. The tentative agreement also states that the two companies may be repaid a portion of those costs if the city settles with any of the other companies named in the suit.

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