British Petroleum and its former subsidiary Arco will pay $14 million to settle a lawsuit over allegations that they failed to properly inspect and maintain underground storage tanks at nearly 800 gas stations around the state, prosecutors said Thursday.
California Attorney General Kamala Harris and eight district attorneys around the state, including Alameda County’s Nancy O’Malley, said the oil companies have violated 71 different state regulations for dealing with hazardous materials going back to 2006.
The violations included tampering with leak detection devices and alarms, failing to tell local officials about releases from the tanks, having no evacuation plans at gas stations and dumping hazardous waste into trash containers, according to the lawsuit, filed in 2013 in Alameda County.
Harris and local prosecutors filed a similar suit around the same time against ConocoPhillips and its affiliate, Phillips 66. The company settled in 2015 for $11.5 million.
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