Companies with the most outstanding Citations
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Bay Area air quality regulators have accumulated a backlog of 1,275 unresolved citations levied against oil refineries and major corporations dating back eight years, a new analysis shows.
By failing to prosecute violations and collect fines in a timely manner, the Bay Area Air Quality Management District is sending the message that pollution laws will not be rigorously enforced, environmentalists said yesterday.
"There's an atmosphere being created that if you violate the law, you won't ever have to pay a penalty," said Alan Ramo, head of the Environmental Law and Justice Clinic at Golden Gate University School of Law.
Ramo and his law students conducted the analysis based on citation data provided by the Bay Area air district. The law clinic released its findings yesterday at the same time it filed suit in San Francisco Superior Court to force the agency to release more detailed information about the violations.
Teresa Lee, a spokeswoman for the air district, defended the agency's record, stating that only 1 percent of the unresolved citations were more than three years old and that the other 99 percent had been issued since Jan. 1, 1998.
One reason for the backlog, Lee said, is that 18 months ago, the air district changed the way it enforces clean-air laws after criticism by the inspector general of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency that the agency was not tough enough.
The goal under its new approach is to increase fines and penalties so that they are a more effective deterrent, she said. In many cases, the air district is purposely collecting citations so that it can build a better case against major offenders.
"We're now negotiating with the large refineries for fines larger than we would have settled for in the past," Lee said. "Once we settle one under the new fine structure, it will set a precedent for the rest of them."
Lee said the district also had been hampered by a lack of lawyers, although that problem is being remedied with a recent hire and more expected in the future. Sales of three refineries also complicated matters, she said.
According to Ramo's analysis, the companies with the most outstanding citations are Chevron Products Co. in Richmond, Romic Environmental Technologies in Palo Alto, Integrated Environmental Systems in Oakland, Read- Rite Corp. in Milpitas and Fremont and Tosco Corp.'s Rodeo refinery.
Others are Ultramar Inc., formerly Tosco at Avon near Martinez; Valero Refining Co. in Benicia, formerly Exxon, and Martinez Refining Co., formerly Shell.
According to the companies, the citations cover a range of violations, including poor record keeping, leaking seals on tanks and other equipment and emissions that violate air pollution standards.
In interviews, company representatives said that for the most part, they had corrected the problems that earned the citations. Some companies were challenging enforcement actions, and others were negotiating settlements.
"We would like to get them cleared," Marielle Boortz, a Chevron spokeswoman,
said of about 80 citations listed as outstanding as far back as March 1997. "We've been cooperating with the district to this end. As to why the alleged violations were given, they've all been addressed. We've been trying to do our part here."
John DiMatteo, director of corporate communications at Read-Rite, a Milpitas and Fremont manufacturer of computer disk drive components, said his company had taken care of any problems related to the 32 citations reported as unresolved since June 1997.
"That's as much as we can do about it," DiMatteo said. "All we can do is comply with their requirements."
The Golden Gate School of Law environmental law clinic filed suit yesterday on behalf of its client, the Oakland environmental group Our Children's Earth, charging that the air district is violating the California Public Records Act in refusing to release more detailed information about the nature of the violations.
Lee said that giving the law clinic more extensive information about the citations could compromise the air district's regulatory actions against the companies.
E-mail Jane Kay at jkay@sfchronicle.com
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