Environmental Law
Garlic Co. to Pay $60K for Creating Toxic ‘Swamp Gas’
Posted Apr 22, 2008, 05:29 am CST
By Molly McDonough
Just in time for Earth Day 2008, a Gilroy, Calif.-based garlic-processing company has agreed to settle a lawsuit brought after the company let chunks of garlic spill into a nearby creek.
The garlic spill created a "swamp gas" that killed thousands of fish, the San Francisco Chronicle reports.
Christopher Ranch, one of the country's largest garlic processors, agreed to pay $60,000 to settle the suit brought by the Santa Clara County district attorney's office.
The newspaper reports that hundreds of suckerfish and federally protected steelhead salmon died after garlic fell off of delivery trucks and spilled into storm drains feeding Carnadero Creek in 2007.
The $60,000 will reportedly go into county-maintained fish and game preservation funds.