Ultramar Settlement 2002
Ultramar Cases Settled for $19,000
During June 2001, it was discovered that Ultramar's Avon refinery had not been making proper notification of their CARBOB batches as required by regulation. A total of 31 batches were improperly reported. The case has been settled for $14,000.
On September 19, 2001, Ultramar self-reported a violation caused by an employee failing to update the active model on the refinery computer server. The predictive model (PM) regulations require that once a producer has notified us of a PM formulation for a batch of gasoline, all subsequent batches must meet the reported specifications until we are notified that another formulation is being used. An employee returning from vacation, unaware that the PM had been changed, released a batch of gasoline that complied with the earlier PM, but had a higher aromatic content than the latest formulation reported to the Air Resources Board. The case has been settled for $5,000.