Claiming damages for exposure to benzene

The largest civil settlement of its kind in Arizona history involved benzene. In October, 2000, Union Oil Company of California (Unocal) has agreed to pay $675,000 in penalties for delaying the investigation and cleanup of soil and groundwater contamination caused by leaking underground gasoline storage tanks at one of its former Tempe service stations, state officials announced today. The first groundwater samples taken by Unocal from beneath the service station in 1992 showed benzene levels to be as high as 2,200 times Arizona's legal limit for benzene in groundwater.