FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                         ENR
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 1997                        (202) 514-2008
                                               TDD (202) 514-1888

                                 
FINA OIL AND FOUR OTHERS AGREE TO SPEND MORE THAN $6 MILLION TO
    RESTORE AND EXPAND UNIQUE MARINE HABITAT ON TEXAS COAST
                                
   United States Takes Action to Preserve One of the World's
           Rarest Ecosystems Damaged by Oil Rig Move
                                
     WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Fina Oil and Chemical Company and four
contractors today agreed to spend more than $6 million to settle
allegations that they damaged nearly 40 acres of rare marine
habitat moving an oil rig in the Laguna Madre near Corpus
Christi, the United States announced.  Today's settlement seeks
to resolve a lawsuit brought by the United States in 1992.

     In its lawsuit, the United States alleged that the companies
destroyed more than 37 acres of seagrass that supports a rare
marine habitat in a bay on the Texas coast.  The United States
alleged that in the process of moving the rig, the companies
disturbed sediment, smothering the seagrass beds, in violation of
federal laws prohibiting the unpermitted filling of U.S. waters.
The bay, known as the Laguna Madre, is separated from the Gulf of
Mexico by Padre Island, a barrier island stretching about 200
miles along the Texas coast from Corpus Christi to the Mexican
border. 
 
     Under the consent decree, filed today in U.S. District Court
in Houston, Fina Oil and its contractors will pay $2.28 million
in civil fines, the highest civil penalty ever imposed for
unlawfully filling wetlands or other marine habitat.  The
companies also will restore the damaged seagrass beds and create
another 37 acres of new seagrass habitat in the Laguna Madre, at
an estimated cost of $4 million.  The consent decree, if approved
by the court, would resolve the government's lawsuit.

     "This settlement will ensure that the people of south Texas
and all Americans continue to enjoy the many environmental,
commercial and recreational benefits that only a healthy Laguna
Madre can provide," said Lois J. Schiffer, Assistant Attorney
General in charge of the Justice Department's Environment and
Natural Resources Division.  "The civil penalties included in
this settlement are proof that breaking our nation's
environmental laws is not a money-making proposition."

     Colonel Eric R. Potts, Galveston District Engineer for the
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, commended the teamwork of the U.S.
Attorney and the Department of Justice with the Corps and the
active support of the Texas General Land Office, Texas Parks and
Wildlife Department, U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service and
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.  "This decision is especially
significant because of the balanced decision-making in order to
maintain the biological, chemical and physical integrity of our
nation's waters," he said.

     "This settlement will have a long term, positive impact on
the entire ecosystem along the Texas coastline," said Gaynelle
Griffin Jones, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Texas. 
"The case demonstrates our continuing resolve to agressively
enforce environmental law in this area."

     The unique habitat of the Laguna Madre is protected from the
Gulf of Mexico by Padre Island, which as a barrier island, limits
the flow of water into the bay.  The Laguna Madre is one of only
three large "hypersaline" bodies of water in the world.  The high
salinity of the water is a result of the limited amount of water
flowing into the bay and its shallow depth.  The World's other
large hypersaline habitats are the Laguna Madre Tamaulipas in
Mexico, just south of the Rio Grande delta, and the Sivash in the
Ukraine.

     The seagrass that grows in the laguna is the foundation of
the food chain in this unique ecosystem, serving as the home to
many of the tiny organisms that feed the fish of the laguna.  The
Laguna Madre is especially rich in commercially valuable species
such as blue crab, redfish, and several species of shrimp.  The
seagrass is also the primary food source for the endangered Red-
headed duck that winters in the laguna.

     Seagrass beds found in hypersaline waters take so long to
develop--much longer than seagrass takes to grow in waters with
moderate salt content--that their destruction threatens the
survival of the entire ecosystem.     

     In December 1990, Fina Oil received a permit from the U.S.
Army Corps of Engineers to place a wellhead in the Laguna Madre,
provided it used shallow draft vessels when moving the drilling
rig and did not disturb the seagrass beds.  Disregarding the
conditions set by the Corps, Fina Oil and its contractors
attempted to move the drilling rig in December 1990  -- a period
of shallow water in the Laguna Madre -- quickly grounding the rig
in the laguna floor.  Large towboats were then used to dislodge
the rig using their propellers to "wash" away enough of the bay
bottom to free the rig.  This "propwashing" churned up sediments
in the channels, smothering and destroying more than 37 acres of
seagrass beds.

     The Fina Oil contractors are the Belaire Consulting Inc., of
Rockport, Texas, Fina Oil's environmental consultant; Grace
Drilling Company of Houston, hired by Fina Oil to provide a
drilling rig and to move the rig to the drilling location; and
Brown Water Marine Service Inc., of Rockport, Texas, and Loyd W.
Richardson Construction Corp., of Aransas Pass, Texas, owners and
operators of the tugboats used to assist in the drilling rig
move.

     The restoration and creation of seagrass beds will enhance
and protect the unique and valuable environmental resources of
the Laguna Madre, that is also a local favorite area for
recreational fishing and duck hunting, according to government
biologists in the area.  
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97-078