FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE               CONTACT:  ARNOLD ROBBINS, EPA
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 5, 1995                           (415) 744-1520
                                                 JIM SWEENEY, DOJ
                                                   (202) 514-2008
                                              TDD: (202) 514-1888


       WITCO, CATALYST WILL PAY $700,000 POLLUTION PENALTY
 
            AGREE TO INSTALL POLLUTION CONTROL DEVICES


     WASHINGTON D.C. --  Witco Corp., a California refinery, and
Catalyst Golden Bear Cogeneration Partnership, a former operator
of a facility that provided heat to Witco's Oildale refinery in
Southern California, agreed today to pay a $700,000 penalty to
settle federal pollution charges, the Department of Justice and
the United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) said. 
The charges stemmed from Witco's repeated violations of clean
air, water and hazardous waste laws, including endangering a
drinking water source for the community of Oildale.

     Witco, in a consent decree filed by the Department of
Justice on behalf of the USEPA, also agreed to install millions
of dollars of pollution control equipment at its Oildale refinery
near Bakersfield, California and to study the extent of soil and
groundwater contamination in the vicinity of its refinery.

     The consent decree settles a lawsuit initiated in October,
1992 in U.S. District Court in Fresno, California in which the
USEPA had charged Witco with 14 counts of violating the Clean Air
Act, the Safe Drinking Water Act and the Resource Conservation
and Recovery Act.  Catalyst was charged with two counts of
violating the Clean Air Act.  

     "This settlement not only shows that pollution doesn't pay,
it shows that there's a better way-- to prevent pollution in the
first place," said John Wise, deputy regional administrator of
USEPA's western regional office.  "Under this settlement, Witco
is committed to making its refinery a model of pollution
prevention for the oil refining industry."

     Lois Schiffer, Assistant Attorney General in charge of 
Department of Justice's Environment and Natural Resources
Division, said, "Make no mistake, we are committed to enforcing
the environmental laws of the land."

                                 
     "The real winners today are the people of Oildale.  They can
live with less threat, now that Witco has agreed to change its
way of doing business," Schiffer added.
     
     The complaint charged that Witco and Catalyst violated the
Clean Air Act by emitting excessive amounts of nitrogen oxides--a
precursor of smog--into the air.  Nitrogen oxides are a component
of ozone pollution, which causes health problems ranging from
coughing, wheezing and eye irritation to more serious lung
infection and permanent lung damage.  The ozone pollution level
in the San Joaquin Valley, where Oildale is located, has been
classified as "serious" by the USEPA because it greatly exceeds
the health standard set by the Clean Air Act.  Witco further
violated the Act by emitting excessive amounts of hydrogen
sulfide into the air and failing to monitor or to report those
emissions to USEPA. 

     Witco violated the Safe Drinking Water Act, the complaint
said, by dumping petroleum products such as lubricating oil into
shallow holes, or "dry wells," contaminating soil at least 120
feet below the surface and endangering an aquifer used for
drinking water by the city of Oildale.  Finally, it said Witco
illegally disposed hazardous waste solvents from the refinery's
laboratory by discharging them into deep injection wells, which
violated the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act.  

     The consent decree requires Witco to install a wastewater
recycling system at a cost of at least $2.25 million and operate
it for at least 10 years.  The system, by reducing Witco's water
usage approximately 80 percent, will save more than 33 million
gallons of water a year and end the refinery's current practice
of discharging wastewater into deep injection wells.  The wells
must be closed and the recycling system operating by June 1998. 
In the meantime, Witco must take immediate steps to ensure that
no additional hazardous waste is discharged into the wells and
train its employees concerning the proper disposal of spent
laboratory solvents.
     
     In addition, Witco must immediately close its "dry wells"
and monitor soil and groundwater contamination.  To prevent
further air pollution, Witco must install equipment to monitor
and reduce the hydrogen sulfide content of fuel gas burned at the
refinery.
                                 
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95-189