For more than 80 years, the oil industry has had a presence in Goleta. The first successful well — Luton-Bell No. 1 — was drilled in Ellwood in 1928 by the Rio Grande Barnsdall Oil Company. A field of 100 million barrels of high-quality crude was discovered several hundred feet offshore. Following this discovery, shoreline oil piers sprung up along the coast, and refineries and storage tanks covered the Ellwood Mesa.
The local landmark on Hollister Avenue, the Barnsdall Rio Grande gas station, was built at this time. According to local historian Justin Rughe, its distinguished Spanish-style architecture was the result of Pearl Chase’s civic improvement program, which included upgrading local filling stations.
As the near-shore oil was pumped out, the shoreline piers were dismantled, leaving just one — Pier 421. It is currently inactive, but an environmental impact report will be issued shortly to determine if and how Venoco Inc., the current owner, will be allowed to restart it. This is a complex issue that will eventually be decided by the State Lands Commission, which has jurisdiction over shoreline waters along the California coast.
The oil business, to put it bluntly, can leave a mess. Anyone who has been to Haskell’s Beach in the winter at low tide knows that a lot of industrial trash was left behind when the oil piers went away. It included old pipes, cut-off pilings and other projecting hazards that created a real danger to swimmers and surfers. The city was delighted this year when, at the urging of then-Assemblyman Pedro Nava, the State Lands Commission authorized funds from the Beach Hazards Removal Project. This led to clearing most of this debris from the Ellwood and Haskell’s beaches this past summer.
At the same time, the state Division of Oil, Gas and Geothermal Resources earmarked funding to plug and reabandon three wells on Ellwood Mesa/Sperling Preserve to ensure against future leakage.
In addition, ARCO is in the process of removing an old, abandoned pipeline from west of the Bacara Resort & Spa to the Ellwood Onshore Facility, a delicate operation that goes through sensitive habitat and crosses Tecolote and Bell creeks.
All of this restoration is cause for optimism — that industrial operations can be cleaned up and the environment restored after abandonment of projects. Unfortunately, it has taken close to 60 years to accomplish much of this work, but if abandonment conditions were established at the outset, as is required today, it could be accomplished much sooner.
ARCO took over from Rio Grande Barnsdall in the 1960s and in 1966 erected Platform Holly, two miles offshore in 211 feet of water. This enabled it to drill into the rich South Ellwood Field. Platform Holly is now owned by Venoco and is producing 2,000 to 3,000 barrels a day, delivered by pipeline to the Ellwood Onshore Facility.
So what is the future of the current oil operations at Platform Holly, the Ellwood Onshore Facility and the Ellwood Marine Terminal on UCSB’s Mesa?
The EOF is grandfathered in as a nonconforming facility on a site zoned for open space and active recreation. Oil and gas from Holly comes by pipeline to the EOF to be processed. Sulfur is removed and the cleaned gas is piped to the gas company. The oil goes through a pipeline, Line 96, east along Hollister Avenue, then south to the Ellwood Mesa and to the EMT storage tanks. Every 10 days or so a barge is towed in and moored across from the EMT. The oil from the tanks is then piped onto the barge.
Until a few months ago, the barge in use was single hulled and when loaded was towed either to San Francisco or to Long Beach. This was an accident waiting to happen. Venoco has since been required to use a double-hulled barge, which reduces the risk, but tankering oil is nonetheless a risky operation.
Fortunately, this risk will be averted in the future. Venoco, with the concurrence of the City of Goleta, Santa Barbara County and the California Coastal Commission, is about to build an overland pipeline that will carry oil from the EOF to the consolidated facility at Los Flores Canyon farther up the Gaviota Coast. Once it is complete, barging of oil from Platform Holly will cease.
Venoco then will remove the tanks at Ellwood and restore the surrounding area. While spills do happen on land, they are much easier to contain than spills on water. The existing Pipeline 96, which lies mostly within the City of Goleta, will be deactivated and environmental studies will determine which parts can be safely abandoned in place and which need to be removed.
Many in the community would like to see a public recreation area where the EOF now stands. This could happen if both oil and gas from Holly could be processed away from the coast, at the Flores Canon facility, or if an end date for drilling were to be negotiated. Neither of these possibilities is on the immediate horizon. While this should not be interpreted as meaning that restrictions on oil development can be eased, it is nonetheless cause for optimism that the above examples show that restoration of the environment is possible even after the intensive industrial operations that have gone on at Ellwood during the past 80 years.
There is room to dream that a new beach park could be created one day between the Sandpiper Golf Club and the Bacara Resort. While it isn’t in the near future, the restoration efforts we’ve seen recently are encouraging.
Let us know what you think. Click here to visit the city’s Web site, or click here to visit our Facebook page.
— Margaret Connell is serving her second term as mayor of Goleta.
Comments
