ExxonMobil should pay nearly $20 million for pollution violations at a Houston-area refinery and chemical plant, a federal judge ruled this week.
U.S. District Judge David Hittner, Reuters reports, wrote in a 101-page decision that the ExxonMobil facility in Baytown, Texas, released 10 million pounds of pollutants and accounted for 16,386 days of violations between 2005 and 2013.
Two environmental advocacy groups — Environment Texas and the Sierra Club — sued the energy giant under the Clean Air Act in 2010 and alleged that the Baytown plant violated the terms of its operating permits.
Hittner originally sided with ExxonMobil in 2014, but an appeals court last year ruled that he improperly assessed the company's liability and returned the case to the lower court.
"The court finds given the number of days of violations and the quantitative amount of emissions released as a result, the seriousness factor weighs in favor of the assessment of a penalty," Hittner wrote in this week's decision, according to Reuters.
The $19.95 million penalty will be paid to the federal government, and ExxonMobil is also liable for the environmental groups' legal fees.
The groups — who originally sought a penalty of more than $40 million — praised the ruling and noted that ExxonMobil earned more than $14 million in profits as it emitted potentially harmful materials in a highly populated area.
“This ruling shows how crucial the citizen enforcement provision of the Clean Air Act really is for Texas residents," Environment Texas director Luke Metzger said in a statement.
ExxonMobil, meanwhile, said that the court should not have awarded a penalty due to the company’s compliance history and efforts to comply with pollution standards. The company is considering an appeal.
"We disagree with the court's decision and the award of any penalty," company spokesman Todd Spitler said in a statement to Reuters.
The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality previously fined the company $1.4 million over pollution at Baytown.