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Dow Jones & Company Inc Dec 19, 2002 SANTA ANA, Calif. -- BP PLC agreed to fund a cleanup of 122 Orange County, Calif., gas stations contaminated by the gasoline additive methyl tertiary butyl ether, under terms of a settlement reached with the county.
The agreement requires the London oil company to pay the cost of cleaning up its gas stations in the county, pay the county's $5 million in court costs and spend $3 million for an outside consultant to monitor the cleanup.
A BP spokesman said the company has spent $16 million so far cleaning up its Orange County stations, and he estimated the work is about half finished. The company will phase out the use of MTBE in gasoline sold in California beginning next month, a process it expects to finish by March.
A county spokeswoman said the suit will proceed against Thrifty Oil Co. and Lyondell Chemical Co. In 1999, the county brought a suit against BP's Arco unit and amended it to include Thrifty and Lyondell. Lyondell, a manufacturer of MTBE, said it intends to fight the suit.
Unlike other MTBE contamination suits, Orange County's drinking-water supply has been free of MTBE, which the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency labels a suspected carcinogen. The county's suit said the companies failed to adhere to regulations governing the monitoring and testing of underground storage tanks, and showed MTBE in groundwater and soil.
Earlier this year, the California attorney general reached a $45.8 million settlement with BP for alleged underground-tank violations at 59 locations. BP operates about 900 Arco stations in the state.
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