Recently, Exxon Mobil Corporation agreed to pay $11.2 million to settle a lawsuit alleging the company knowingly contaminated New York waterways with benzene. The suit, filed in 1996, claimed the oil and gas company "mismanaged" benzene-contaminated waste at a petroleum storage facility located along the Arthur Kill waterway on Staten Island.

Investigators with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) charged Exxon Mobil with dumping benzene-contaminated waste into two artificial ponds. The benzene mixed with rainwater and flowed into the Arthur Kill waterway. Benzene levels in the area exceed safe thresholds.