|
10
<br />SANTA BARBARA COUNTY, CA:
<br />Would You Like Some Oil with Your Water?
<br />In March 2008, the Environmental Defense Council and Santa Barbara
<br />ChannelKeeper sent at letter to a local Santa Barbara newspaper: °On March 3,
<br />2008, the Independent ran an article titled, 'Greka Spills Again Again.' This
<br />followed a series of articles with titles including: 'Greka Spills Oil Again' (December
<br />8, 2007), or'Greka Spills Again' (December 20, 2007), or 'Another Greka
<br />Leak' (December 24, 2007), or 'Another Spill at Greka' (January 3, 2008). Then
<br />there is our favorite - `No Really, Greka Spills Again' (January 5, 2008)."
<br />z,A According to county officials, since 2003 Greka has spilled more than 450,000
<br />~•~~.,: ~, gallons of oil and hazardous substances into Santa Barbara county's creeks and
<br />soil.
<br />Greka oil spill into unnamed seasonal creek Photo: SBFD
<br />On January 5, 2008, the Greka Oil Company spilled more than 84,000 gallons of oil and hazardous materials into
<br />a creek in Santa Barbara County. The primary impacts of these spills have been felt in sun`ace waters and in
<br />groundwater.
<br />Yet with all this, Greka continues to operate onshore oil leases in Santa Barbara
<br />County. In fact, they have 939 oil wells in the county of which 254 are active. The
<br />remaining inactive wells aren't shut down and cleaned up, they just aren't currently
<br />in operation. Greka also operates 77 onshore production, processing and
<br />transportation facilities and four oil fields in the county. They spilled 10,767 barrels
<br />of oil between 2003-2007 and in fact were responsible for over 82% of all the oil
<br />spills from all operators. The county fire department reported that the county
<br />received over 400 response calls to Greka since 1999. Each hour of response time
<br />cost the county $448.33 for a total of $179,332. That figure does not include
<br />additional hours, compliance follow-up inspections, clean-up oversight, research
<br />hours, associated meetings nor management oversight costs. The county
<br />determined that the $179, 332 cost "can reasonably increase five to ten fold."
<br />In 2008, the Board of Supervisors adopted new ordinances and county staff provided Two workerstryingto contain Greka
<br />more aggressive oversight, which started to reduce Greka's abysmal record of spill oil spill in creek Photo: SBFD
<br />incidents. The threat of continued spills, however, is ongoing, because many of Greka's problems stem from aged
<br />and failing infrastructure (for example, pipes, tanks, etc.) and reportedly poor management.
<br />A primary issue/sticking point was and still is the confusing overlap of federal, state and local jurisdictions.
<br />According to the Environmental Defense Council, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has been forced
<br />into a limited role. County inspectors have limited authority and limited capacity. California's Central Coast
<br />Regional Water Quality Control Board has had difficulty with jurisdictional issues. In
<br />2008, the County Board of Supervisors updated the County's Petroleum Code to
<br />better deal with actors like Greka in the future. However, one of the inherent
<br />"Considered by many to be Santa problems with regulating onshore oil operations in Santa Barbara County is that
<br />Barbara's environmental public many of them are on private lands.
<br />enemy number one for its facilities'
<br />frequent and flagrant oil spills, Santa Barbara County has been struggling to deal with the repeated spills and
<br />Greka has been quietly fighting ineffective response from the company, which hired a former county supervisor as its
<br />more than 1,500 violations and spokesperson. In January 2009, the "board heard a report from County Fire officials
<br />more than half a million dollars in about a series of four spills at North County Greka facilities that occurred during the
<br />resulting fines at meetings with Christmas holiday and which collectively leaked more than 12,000 gallons of crude
<br />Santa Barbara County staffers and oil and produced water.... The third spill was discovered on December 27 by County
<br />Fire officials visiting the site of the previous spill. Apparently, in looking to stop the
<br />counsel since (ate flow of the earlier mishap, a Greka employee shut off the wrong valve, causing
<br />January.' unwanted pressure buildup and the eventual explosion of an adjoining pipe. Before
<br />Santa Barbara Independent, the error could be remedied, more than 9,200 allons of oil and waters filled into a
<br />February l8, zoos dry creek bed that serves as a seasonal tributary to the Sisquoc River. p
<br />7 Clean Water For All: County Leaders Speak Out for Clean Water
<br />
|