The Santa Barbara County Planning Commission voted Wednesday to deny Plains All American Pipeline’s request to install safety valves to the crude oil line that ruptured and caused the 2015 Refugio oil spill.
In a 3-2 vote, commissioners upheld appeals of the project filed by the Gaviota Coast Conservancy, the Tautrim family and GreyFox LLC.
More than 123,000 gallons of oil were spilled onto the shoreline and ocean near Refugio State Beach in the May 19, 2015, spill for which Plains All American Pipeline was found to be criminally and civilly liable. Federal investigators determined that the company failed to detect the leak and external corrosion.
The pipelines have been shut down since the oil spill. In addition to the valve installation project, Plains has a pending application to build a replacement pipeline along a similar route.
Plains sold the pipelines to ExxonMobil last October, but Plains still has been considered the applicant for the project as the change of ownership request has not yet been processed, according to the county. ExxonMobil plans to sell the pipeline and other Santa Ynez Unit oil infrastructure to Sable.
Exxon-affiliated Pacific Petroleum Co. attorneys and staff made the applicant presentation during the meeting and asked the planning commissioners to approve the valve installation project.
The decision to deny the project followed a lengthy public hearing with about 30 public commenters. Most of them spoke in support of the appeals and asked the commission to deny the project.
The project proposed installing 16 safety valves on the pipeline that runs from the Gaviota Coast to San Luis Obispo and Kern counties in order to comply with Assembly Bill 864 requiring operators near coastal zone to use the “best available technology … to reduce the amount of oil spilled in an oil spill to protect state waters and wildlife.”
The groups appealing the project approval, and members of the public commenting during the meeting, were concerned that approving the project would lead to the pipeline operators eventually restarting oil production and use of the pipelines.
“All three of those offshore platforms from the 1980s and the corroded pipelines need to be retired not restarted to have another chance to spill,” said Bill Hickman with the Santa Barbara Surfrider Foundation. “The stakes of another oil spill on a corroded pipeline are too high for our coastal ecosystems and for Santa Barbara’s coastal economy to bypass additional environmental review on this highly dangerous project.”
They also expressed concerns with the environmental review process, given that the last environmental impact report was prepared nearly 40 years ago.
“The 1986 approval findings no longer apply, and the risks of an oil spill are elevated above what was previously approved,” said Doug Kern, executive director of the Gaviota Coast Conservancy. “This project would have been problematic for the safety and health of the environment and surrounding communities.”
The motion to deny the pipeline valve installation project passed 3-2, with Planning Commissioners Laura Bridley, Michael Cooney and John Parke in favor, and Larry Ferini and Vincent Martinez against.
Wednesday’s hearing was a continuation of the Planning Commission’s March 1 hearing.
