Fresno settles contamination lawsuit with Shell Oil for $230M

The City of Fresno would receive $230 million in the settlement of a 17-year-old lawsuit with Shell Oil Co. over contamination of city drinking water wells.

It is the largest known settlement of its kind in the country for this type of environmental claim, according to a news release Thursday from Fresno City Attorney Andrew Janz.

In the complaint, the City of Fresno alleged manufacturers and distributors of Shell Oil products, including Dow Chemical Company contaminated some of the city’s water wells.

“This historic settlement now ensures the city will be able to return the contaminated wells back into service.” Janz also said, “I want to thank my legal team led by Mike Axline for their unwavering dedication to this difficult case for the last 16 years.”

The settlement will be earmarked for cleanup and mitigation of contaminated wells belonging to the City of Fresno over a ten-year period. All existing water sources do not rely on the out-of-service wells that were involved in the lawsuit, according to Janz.

The lawsuit, filed on March 21, 2007, sought reimbursement of the cost to remove the chemical compound TCP from city wells. TCP, also known as 1,2,3-Trichloropropane, is classified as a likely carcinogenic to humans by the Environmental Protection Agency. TCP leaches from the soil into the aquifer and can sink to the bottom and remain in groundwater for long periods of time, according to the EPA.

The City of Fresno has reached settlements with other companies resulting from this contamination.

In 2017, the City of Clovis won a three-month civil trial against Shell Oil over the cleanup of TCP. A jury awarded the city nearly $22 million.

TCP was previously used in products injected into the soil to kill nematodes.