California’s Attorney General, Jerry Brown, has won a $19.5 million judgment against Shell Oil Company and its affiliates for violating California’s hazardous waste and underground storage tank (UST) laws.  Shell Oil Co. disregarded the state’s underground fuel storage and hazardous waste laws, committing hundreds of environmental violations at its gasoline stations across California.  In addition to the monetary fine, the judgment requires Shell to comply with state UST laws and improve its spill and alarm monitoring, employee training, hazardous waste management and emergency response procedures at its gasoline stations.

Unfortunately, Shell’s profit-driven, reckless conduct in disregarding the public’s health and safety by failing to insure that dangerous chemicals are not released from their USTs is not unique to California, or even to Shell itself.  Leaking USTs are a potentially deadly problem plaguing every city and every state in this country.  These USTs are owned by an untold number of petroleum distributors, both large and small.  According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency, there are currently more than 479,000 confirmed releases of hazardous petroleum-related chemicals from USTs in the United States – more than 11,000 of these UST releases have occurred in Alabama.

Lawyers in our firm are fighting to protect the rights of clients whose health and property have been damaged by contamination from a leaking UST.  If you would like more information, believe that your health or property may have been harmed by a leaking UST, or have questions, you can contact Chris Boutwell (Chris.Boutwell@beasleyallen.com) in our office at 800-898-2034.

Source:  CSP Daily News

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