SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Chevron has agreed to pay more than $13 million in fines for dozens of past oil spills in California.in Kern County. The company has already paid to clean up that spill. This money will instead go toward the state Department of Conservation’s work of plugging old and orphaned wells.
The 2019 oil spill dumped at least 800,000 gallons of oil and water into a canyon in Kern County, the home of the state’s oil industry. Also, Chevron agreed to pay a $7.5 million fine for more than 70 smaller spills between 2018 and 2023. These accounted for more than 446,000 gallons of oil spilled and more than 1.48 million gallons of water that killed or injured at least 63 animals and impacted at least 6 acres of salt brush and grassland habitat, according to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife’s Office of Spill Prevention and Response.
“This settlement is a testament to our firm stance that we will hold businesses strictly liable for oil spills that enter our waterways and pollute our environment,” Department of Fish and Wildlife Director Chuck Bonham said.