Texas Pipeline Company To Stand Trial For 2015 California Oil Spill
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- A Texas company that owns an oil pipeline that spilled 140,000 gallons of crude along the California coast faces a criminal trial three years after the disaster.
Jury selection began Thursday in Santa Barbara County Superior Court in the case against Plains All American Pipeline.
The company faces a 15-count indictment that includes three felonies for releasing more than 140,000 gallons of oil on May 19, 2015.
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The charges say the company violated the Clean Waters Act because some of the oil flowed into the Pacific Ocean at Refugio State Beach.
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The company has said the spill was an accident not a crime.
Charges were dropped against a Plains employee and two-thirds of the original charges have been dismissed.
The trial could last months.
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