Oil and Energy Conglomerate Exxon Mobil Pleads Guilty to Killing Migratory Birds in Company Owned Waste Water Ponds-

Exxon Mobil Corp. has pleaded guilty to charges of killing migratory birds from contact with open-air natural gas and chemical waste water storage ponds, which contained harmful levels of arsenic, lead, benzene, mercury, acetone and other chemicals. Even with Exxon Mobil’s alleged efforts to keep water birds out of company-owned lands, the oil conglomerate has been found guilty of killing migratory birds that have rested on these reservoirs in five different states. Exxon will pay $600,000 in fines for their failure to regulate company land, on top of the $2.5 million they claim to have devoted in efforts to prevent wildlife from entering these storage pools. Even with the penalty and preventative monetary investments, the reality is that the costs are barely comparable to an hour of the energy group’s daily power production. None of the bird species found to be killed through Exxon Mobil’s waste ponds were endangered or threatened.