Chevron to pay $1 million after 2006 oil spill in Arthur Kill

Chevron to pay $1 million after 2006 oil spill in Arthur Kill Chevron has agreed to pay $1 million for spilling more than 10,000 gallons of crude oil into the Arthur Kill last year, said New Jersey’s Attorney General Stuart Rabner and Criminal Justice Director Gregory A. Paw.
   The funds Chevron paid in the civil settlement will be used by N.Y.-N.J. Baykeeper for a project to reestablish oyster beds in the New York-New Jersey Harbor in the area of the Arthur Kill and Raritan Bay.
   “This is an appropriate settlement, particularly given that the funds will be used to create new oyster beds in an effort to reestablish an important part of the harbor’s ecosystem,” Rabner said. “Chevron previously paid for the environmental cleanup of the spill.”
   A barge was offloading crude oil at the Chevron Perth Amboy facility on Feb. 13, 2006, when the oil was discharged from a leak in a pipeline near the Arthur Kill. The oil leached into the Arthur Kill, where it created a slick that led the U.S. Coast Guard, the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection and the Division of Criminal Justice's Environmental Crimes Bureau to respond.
   “Fortunately, the environmental damage from the spill was limited due to the quick response,' Paw said. 'This civil settlement represents a beneficial resolution of this matter.” Chevron previously paid the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection $45,000 in a natural resource damage settlement related to the spill.