ExxonMobil, Ill. AG Madigan agree to order in oil mist case

CHICAGO (Legal Newsline) - Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan and Will County State's Attorney James Glasgow filed an agreed order on Thursday that will require ExxonMobil Oil Corp. to take action following an October oil mist burst.

Under the terms of the agreement, ExxonMobil will look into the cause of the oil release that occurred on Oct. 19 and will take certain actions to make sure it does not happen again.

In a complaint filed on Oct. 31, Madigan and Glasgow alleged that an oil release at ExxonMobil's Channahon Township refinery was the result of procedural failures at one of the company's refinery's coker units, leading to an oil mixture landing on homes and farms within a four-mile radius of the facility.

The incident caused the closure of Arsenal Rd. because of slippery conditions created by the oil mixture. The residue also fell on the Union Pacific Railroad tracks and in nearby Jackson Creek.

The agreed order requires that ExxonMobil provide a detailed explanation of the procedures used for restarting the coker unit after the Oct. 19 release, identify all landowners, local government agencies and residents it communicated with after the release, submit a report on the company's cleanup of off-site properties affected by the incident, provide the results of sediment and water samples taken from Jackson Creek, report all pollutants and chemicals released during the matter and the quantities of each, submit a detailed corrective work schedule for needed improvements and complete an inquiry into the incident within 14 days to determine the root cause, and submit recommendations to Madigan's office and Glasgow's office for implementing protective and corrective measures.

The agreed order also requires that ExxonMobil pay as much as $50,000 to Madigan's office and the Illinois EPA for costs connected with response and oversight and $20,000 to Will County for its emergency action related response.

A status hearing for the case is set for Feb. 19.