152-HUDSON RIVER WATER SUITE
BACKGROUND

On April 25, 1984 The State of New York sued the Exxon Corporation for more than $16 million, accusing the company of illegally dumping polluted water into the Hudson River and taking out fresh water from 1971 to 1983.
''This is the most flagrant example of environmental crime,'' said Henry G. Williams, the state's Environmental Conservation Commissioner, in announcing the lawsuit.

Exxon acknowledged dumping saltwater ballast from oil tankers into the river and removing fresh water to take to its refinery in Aruba. The oil company has maintained that its actions violated no laws. An Exxon spokesman, Chet Bushnell, today reaffirmed that position.

You can find the article in the New York Times at the following web site, click on the link below to read the entire article.

http://www.nytimes.com/1984/04/26/nyregion/exxon-is-sued-by-new-york-over-use-of-hudson-water.html
FURTHER BACKGROUND

From the conception of the facility in Aruba by Pan American Oil water from the Hudson River has been hauled to Aruba in empty oil tankers to supply the needs of the refinery and the residents of Lago Colony.  In the beginning it is hard to say how much water was hauled to Aruba

In the early 1930 six ships were know as the Aruba Supply Ships because of being fitted with extra cargo holds for cold storage and dry storage as well as special deck cargo space. These ships were: Esso Raleigh; Esso New Orleans; Esso Aruba; Esso Bolivar; F. W. Bedford, Jr. and the Peter Hurll.  On average these ships had a capacity of about 106,000 barrels of oil.  If these tanks were filled with Hudson River Water, after being cleaned, using the Butterworth System, http://www.butterworth.com/ they would hold about 4,500,000 gallons of water.

The trip to and from Aruba was approximately ten days so say each ship made 30 trips a year this would account of a total of 180 tanker loads of water a year.  At 4,500,000 gallons per trip this amounts to 810,000,000 gallons of water hauled to Aruba each year.  Taken over the life of the refinery, 1924 to 1985 this amounts to about 49,410,000,000 gallons of water taken to Aruba.  I think Exxon got a deal by settling for $1,500,000 for that much water.

HUDSON RIVER WATER-PART A HUDSON RIVER WATER-PART B
HUDSON RIVER WATER-PART C GO BACK TO THE DIRECTORY