ExxonMobil To Pay $4.7 Million Fine

ExxonMobil Oil Corp. will pay $4.7 million to the California and federal governments for a 1991 oil spill in the Santa Clara River under a settlement filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles.

The bulk of the money will go toward habitat restoration. The rest will be paid as fines.

The spill occurred when the pipeline was operated by the former Mobil Oil Company, before its merger with Exxon.

A pipeline rupture beneath the Valencia Golf Course released more than 1,700 barrels of crude oil into a 15-mile stretch of the river between Ventura and Los Angeles counties.

The consequencies were terrible. More than 290 birds were oiled and 186 of them died. The spill also killed other animals near the river and harmed the habitat of an endangered fish.

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