Exxon settles over air pollution in Guam, Marianas

The largest U.S. oil company said on Friday it discovered the problem through internal reviews and reported its findings to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

The U.S. Department of Justice said Exxon's two local units had agreed to pay $2.4 million for allegedly violating the U.S. Clean Air Act, and they expect to spend $15 million to bring two gasoline terminals into compliance, reducing their annual discharge of volatile organic compounds by close to 400 tons.

"We are in the process of installing new air emission control equipment on tanks and loading racks for the Cabras and Saipan terminals," the Irving, Texas-based company said of the two sites, which store gasoline before it is hauled to filling stations.

According to a complaint filed with the settlement, Mobil Oil Guam and Mobil Oil Mariana Islands allegedly failed to install vapor pollution controls on 13 storage tanks and all of their loading racks at the storage facilities, the Justice Department said.

"This enforcement action should serve as a warning to other large companies that they need to ensure that each part of their operations complies with the law -- even facilities that are more than 7,000 miles from their headquarters," said Jared Blumenfeld, the EPA's administrator for the Pacific Southwest.

The settlement, lodged in Guam's U.S. District Court, is subject to a 30-day comment period and final court approval.

(Reporting by Braden Reddall. Editing by Robert MacMillan)