FREE
How inflation of 10 items in Los Angeles compares to the rest of the US
Alhambra survey collects community input on sustainability
PG 02
PG 27
MONDAY, APRIL 01- APRIL 07, 2024
VISIT MONTEREYPARKPRESS.COM
VOL. 12,
NO. 165
Chevron will pay record fines for oil spills in California
Pasadena officials provide notice of fast food minimum wage raise
By Janet Wilson, The Desert Sun, and ProPublica
By Staff
| Photo courtesy of McDonald’s (Pasadena, CA)/Facebook
P Chevron oil refinery in Richmond, Calif. | Photo by Scott Hess CC BY-NC 2.0 DEED
This story was originally published by ProPublica. ProPublica is a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative newsroom. Sign up for The Big Story newsletter to receive stories like this one in your inbox
O
il giant Chevron has agreed to pay a recordsetting $13 million to two California agencies for past oil spills, but some of the company’s spills are ongoing. The fines, announced March 20, come more than three years after an investigation by The Desert Sun and ProPublica found that oil companies are profiting from illegal spills and that oversight of the industry by California’s oil and gas division was lax. At least one of Chevron’s spills is still running 21 years after it began in a Kern County oilfield, although a state spokesperson said it has been reduced by 98% “from its peak.” The amount spilled from the site, dubbed GS-5, is larger than the Exxon Valdez disaster. The crude collected from GS-5 generated an estimated $11.6 million in just three years, The Desert Sun and ProPublica found. In fact,
rather than stopping potentially deadly inland spills, known as surface expressions, oil companies have routinely tried to contain them with netting or pieces of metal and used more than 100 of them as unpermitted oil production sites in Kern and Santa Barbara counties. This week’s announcement stopped short of saying GS-5 and other ongoing spills must be stopped, as required under state law. Instead, officials said the settlement “creates a framework for managing the spills with State oversight,” and “Chevron agrees to continue monitoring the site with Department of Conservation oversight.” No specific sites were named. In follow-up emails and a phone call, spokespeople for the state said the fines cover the first phase of the Cymric spill, in which a river of thick crude flowed down a natural watershed. Chevron for several years denied it
posed a risk to health and the environment, and the company fought a $1.6 million fine imposed by state regulators. The penalties also cover dozens of smaller spills that killed or damaged wildlife and habitat. The new fines, which will be paid to the Department of Conservation and the Department of Fish and Wildlife, are unprecedented for the agencies but are minuscule for Chevron, a multinational that reported $2.3 billion in earnings in the fourth quarter of 2023. Spills in Chevron’s Cymric oil field had gushed more than 6 million gallons of wastewater and crude as of last June, but the settlement covers only 2 million gallons spilled from unidentified Kern County Chevron operations. A spokesperson for the Department of Fish and See Chevron Page 28
Wildlife said in an email that the fines covered the first phase of the Cymric incident that the agency’s oil spill response teams worked on from June 2019 through April 2020, totaling 1.2 million gallons, about 70% wastewater and 30% oil. As for the decadeslong GS-5 spill, Department of Conservation spokesperson Jacob Roper said: “As mitigation continues, less oil finds its way to the surface. Mitigation measures include injecting water underground to improve ground stability, sealing subsurface leak paths and removing fluids in shallow areas before they can reach the surface.” (The injected fluid gradually cools hot steam so as to not create more boiling spills.) At the spill’s peak in 2019, Roper noted, about 2,500 barrels of oil and
asadena officials on Wednesday called attention to the April 1 start of a $20 hourly minimum wage for fast food workers and issued a reminder about this summer’s citywide minimum wage hike. The California minimum wage for fast food restaurant employees supersedes Pasadena’s local minimum wage ordinance, according to a city statement. All other workers who aren’t considered “fast food restaurant employees” remain eligible for Pasadena’s $16.93 hourly minimum wage. Starting July 1, the Pasadena minimum wage will increase to $17.50 hourly for all other occupations regardless of a business’ number of employees. This new wage rate will remain in effect until June 30, 2025, when it will again increase. Gov. Gavin Newsom signed into law Assembly Bill 1228 on Sept. 28, raising the minimum wage for certain fast food restaurant workers. To be considered a “fast food restaurant,” the eatery must be a “’limited-service restaurant’ that offers limited or no table service, where the customer’s order food or beverage items and pay for those items before the items are consumed,” officials said. The restaurant must also be “part of a restaurant chain of at least 60 establishments nationwide ... (and be) primarily engaged in selling food and beverages for immediate consumption.” Starting Jan. 1, 2025, “the hourly minimum wage for fast food restaurant employees may be increased by a state-appointed Fast Food Council ... at a rate tied to the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers,” according to the city statement. “The Council and its authority expires at the end of 2029.” Officials said questions about enforcement of the new state law should be directed to the California Labor Commissioner’s Office. Information and the address and telephone number of branch offices are online at Dir.Ca.Gov/DLSE/ dlse.html or under a search for “California Labor Commissioner’s Office,” officials said. Additionally, the state Department of Industrial Relations has a “Frequently Asked Questions” webpage on the fast food minimum wage. For inquiries to the city, officials said to contact the City Service Center during business hours at 626-744-7311.