The US Department of Justice said Koch Industries Inc. has agreed to plead guilty to environmental charges in Minnesota federal court and pay $8 million in fines.
Koch Petroleum Group will pay a $6 million criminal fine to the federal government and $2 million to the Dakota County Park System. Justice said the penalty is the largest federal environmental fine ever imposed in a Minnesota case.
Koch admitted negligence in failing to remedy a 200,000-600,000 gal leak of aviation fuel from one of the tanks at its Rosemount, Minn., refinery during 1992-97.
DOJ said the company knew of the leak as early as February 1992 but used temporary methods to recover some of the fuel and did not develop a comprehensive recovery plan until 1997. The leaked fuel polluted Dakota County's Spring Lake Park.
Koch also pleaded guilty to avoiding monitoring at the refinery during November 1996-March 1997.
DOJ said the refinery had high levels of ammonia in its waste water and dumped about 1 million gal on the ground. It also said the refinery increased discharges into the Mississippi River on weekends, when its permit did not require waste water testing.
In 1998, Koch agreed to pay $6.9 million to settle related Minnesota state claims. It also has a tentative $3.5 million settlement with the US Environmental Protection Agency regarding separate infractions at the refinery.
Mark Wolff, Koch Petroleum executive vice-president, said, "We take full responsibility for our mistakes and regret that these problems ever occurred. We are committed to preventing them in the future."
