| FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE October 16, 2009 WWW.USDOJ.GOV/USAO/CAN |
SAN FRANCISCO – Chuck Sivil, was convicted today of violating the Clean Air Act in connection with his supervision of the operations at Shore Terminals LLC’s bulk fuel terminal located in Selby, Calif., United States Attorney Joseph P. Russoniello announced.
Sivil 56, of Vallejo, Calif., pleaded guilty in front of the Honorable Susan Illston to one felony count of tampering with and rendering ineffective, or causing another to tamper with or render ineffective, a monitoring device on a vapor recovery unit located at the bulk fuel terminal.
According to the plea agreement, Shore Terminals distributed ethanol and jet fuel products stored in tanks at its tank farm by loading fuel trucks with a device known as a truck loading rack. When Shore Terminals’ employees loaded trucks in this manner, significant amounts of volatile organic compounds would be emitted into the ambient air unless the pollutants were captured with a vapor recovery unit. Volatile organic compounds, when combined with sunlight, create ground ozone, which is a major component of what is commonly known as smog.
From at least July 1, 2005, and continuing to Dec. 1, 2006, Sivil was the senior manager of operations and compliance at the facility. During that time period, Shore Terminals experienced problems with its truck loading rack vapor recovery unit that caused the vapor recovery unit to malfunction and shut down. During this period, Shore Terminals’ employees, under Sivil’s supervision, repeatedly loaded ethanol using the truck loading rack while the truck loading rack’s vapor recovery unit was not operating. To do so, Shore Terminals’ employees repeatedly used a bypass switch previously installed in the operations control room. The switch bypassed the automatic shutdown of the loading rack when the vapor recovery unit was not operating. In so doing, Shore Terminals avoided delays in loading trucks, but it also caused the release of volatile organic compounds, that repeatedly vaporized and escaped into the air, in violation of the Clean Air Act. On Aug. 25, 2006, during an inspection by the Bay Area Air Quality Management District, Sivil initially misled the inspector when the inspector noticed the vapor recovery unit was not operating while trucks were loading fuel. Silva told the inspector that it was an electrical issue when he knew it was because his employees were using the bypass switch. Silva later told the inspector the truth. Under his direction, however, the bypass switch continued to be used for several more
months, until Dec. 1, 2006.
The plea agreement, should the court accept it, would require that Sivil to be placed on three years probation and serve one year of home confinement followed by the completion of 200 hours of community service. The court would determine any appropriate fine. Sentencing is scheduled for Jan. 22, 2010.
Stacey Geis and Jeffrey Rabkin are the Assistant U.S. Attorneys who are prosecuting the case with the assistance of Legal Technician Rayneisha Booth. The prosecution is the result of an investigation by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Bay Area Air Quality Management District. The case was referred for prosecution by the Bay Area Air Management’s District counsel.
Further Information:
Case #: CR09-0906 SIA copy of this press release may be found on the U.S. Attorney’s Office’s website at www.usdoj.gov/usao/can.
Electronic court filings and further procedural and docket information are available at https://ecf.cand.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/login.pl.
Judges’ calendars with schedules for upcoming court hearings can be viewed on the court’s website at www.cand.uscourts.gov.
All press inquiries to the U.S. Attorney’s Office should be directed to Jack Gillund at (415) 436-6599 or by email at Jack.Gillund@usdoj.gov.
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