Mobil Faces 4 Criminal Charges in Oil Spill
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The district attorney’s office has filed criminal charges against Mobil Oil for a 74,634-gallon oil spill in Valencia last year that killed 186 birds and damaged the habitat of two endangered species in the Santa Clara River.
Mobil faces a maximum penalty of $497,000 if convicted on two felony counts of illegally disposing of hazardous waste and two misdemeanor counts of polluting a waterway, said Deputy Dist. Atty. David Guthman.
The company has spent $10 million to clean up the Jan. 31 spill, which befouled 15 miles of the Santa Clara River in Los Angeles and Ventura counties, damaging the habitat of the unarmored three-spine stickleback, a fish, and the least Bell’s vireo, a bird.
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