What a Dump: British Petroleum Fined for Unauthorized Disposal of Hazardous Waste

The news just seems to get worse for British Petroleum and its troubled refinery in Texas City.

The latest shoe to drop: BP is staring at a $650,000 penalty for unauthorized land disposal of hazardous waste.

The good news: nobody's dead (so far as we know) as a result of the latest BP screw-up.

The penalty is not yet final but will probably come before the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality in October, an agency spokeswoman said.

Half of the proposed $650,000 fine requires BP to buy a minimum of 50 acres of contiguous property in and around Texas City and make it suitable for park land. The company will be required to preserve the entire property in perpetuity as a park and nature preserve.

(If you've ever been to Texas City, this is definitely a good thing. We're not sure what the park will be named. Suggestions? Anyone?)

British Petroleum, you may remember, has been excoriated for putting production targets and profits ahead of workplace safety following an explosion three years ago that killed 15 workers. Another worker was killed in January when a heavy metal lid blew off during a refinery procedure.

-- Steve Olafson