Tosco on Notice for Dioxin Violations

[Neil Tangri <ntangri@essential.org>]

For immediate release Tuesday, August 17, 1999
For more information contact:  Greg Karras, CBE:  415/ 243-8373 ext. 206
or Denny Larson, CBE:  415/ 243-8373 ext. 212; Michael Lozeau, S.F.
BayKeeper:  415/ 561-2299 ext. 15; Henry Clark, West County Toxics
Coalition: 510/ 232-3427

CBE and BayKeeper put Tosco on Notice for Dioxin Violations
- Groups Initiate Citizen Enforcement Over Oil Refiner's Pollution of S.
F. Bay -

Seeking to protect San Francisco Bay and people who fish it for food
from deadly pollution, Communities for a Better Environment and San
Francisco BayKeeper initiated citizen enforcement today against severe,
ongoing dioxin pollution violations by the Tosco refinery near
Martinez.  Tosco's own tests show that dioxin levels in its waste
discharge to the Bay routinely and dramatically exceed its discharge
limit.  Hundreds of violations occurred since 1995, and violations will
continue if Tosco does not take action.  The groups will ask the courts
to act if Tosco does not resolve the problem within 60 days.

"Enforcing the law against Tosco's violations is a necessary step toward
ending this severe toxic health threat" said Greg Karras of Communities
for a Better Environment (CBE).  "We had to do the same thing before to
stop refinery selenium dumping, and now we need to zero out deadly
dioxin."

"Our right to bring a citizen enforcement action means that citizens do
not have to sit idly by while Tosco and other dischargers further
contaminate our Bay and community," said San Francisco BayKeeper Mike
Lozeau.  "Our goal is to force Tosco to participate in an open audit of
how to get their dioxin dumping down to zero."

CBE and BayKeeper's enforcement action follows on the heels of a
decision by the federal EPA in May listing the entire Bay and portions
of the Delta as impaired by dioxin and posing a threat to local
anglers.  Last month, agreeing with comments on several earlier permits
submitted by BayKeeper and CBE, EPA informed the State's Regional Water
Quality Control Board that the dioxin discharge limit Tosco is violating
must be revised because it is at least ten times too lax to protect the
Bay.  Tosco produces at least 20 times more dioxin than the existing
limit would allow to be discharged.  CBE and BayKeeper believe
eliminating dioxin in Tosco refinery processes is the most practical,
cost-effective way to end Tosco's discharge violations. The groups have
experience in refinery clean ups.

In August, 1998 the groups concluded a nearly identical effort in
settlements with Tosco, Unocal and Exxon that cut the largest source of
selenium pollution in the Bay by more than 90%.  Refiners had denied
causing significant selenium pollution of the Bay, and sued the Regional
Water Quality Control Board to forestall enforcement by that agency,
before the groups' enforcement action led to the clean up. Dioxin is a
useless by-product of industrial processes involving chlorine, and the
most toxic group of synthetic chemicals known.  A major study released
by CBE in September, 1998 documented dioxin contamination of San
Francisco Bay fish at levels that result in high risk of cancer,
endometriosis, diabetes, and childhood learning problems in subsistence
anglers and their families.

Significantly, the CBE study uncovered evidence that refineries and
other industrial sources cause much of the pollution:  Dioxin levels
measured in fish and rainstorm runoff increase near industrial sources,
and this pollution gradient extends for miles from the sources,
indicating a Bay-wide pollution impact.  Oakland and San Francisco
focused regional government attention on dioxin in February and March,
1999 by unanimously adopting resolutions calling for the elimination of
dioxin at its regional sources wherever possible.  EPA's May, 1999
ruling that dioxin pollution of the Bay is a high priority under the
Clean Water Act was issued because of the need to stop toxic health
threats to people who eat Bay fish.

###

For a copy of the 60 Notice please call Ann (reception) at 415-243-8373.




--

Neil TANGRI