ConocoPhillips pays Puget spill fine
ConocoPhillips and its subsidiary Polar Tankers have agreed to pay a $540,000 fine related to a 13 October 2004 oil spill in Puget Sound, Washington state. While Polar Tankers has not admitted to causing the spill in Dalco Passage the Washington Department of Ecology said in a statement on Friday that the companies have taken "full responsibility for the penalty." After the spill occurred, the ecology department and the US Coast Guard launched tests that determined the oil aboard Polar Tankers' Polar Texas matched the oil that had polluted the Puget Sound area. The fine is said to be the largest ever issued by the department. The costs of the clean-up exceeded $2.2M and, according to the statement, the US Department of Justice is also working to recover those costs from Polar Tankers under the Oil Pollution Act.
