The Santa Barbara County Planning Commission heard public comments from about two dozen community members on Wednesday regarding appeals against Plains All American Pipeline’s request to install safety valves to the crude oil lines that caused the 2015 Refugio oil spill.
Plains All American Pipeline was found criminally and civilly liable for the May 19, 2015, spill, with federal investigators determining that the company failed to detect the leak and external corrosion.
The rupture in the oil pipeline — which runs from the Gaviota Coast to San Luis Obispo and Kern counties, and hasn’t operated since the spill — spilled over 123,000 gallons of oil onto the shoreline and ocean near Refugio State Beach.
Last October, Plains All American Pipeline sold the pipelines to ExxonMobil, although Plains is still considered the applicant for this project since the change of ownership request has not yet been processed. ExxonMobil has expressed wanting to restart production and use of the pipelines.
The project involves installing 16 safety valves in the pipeline in order to comply with Assembly Bill 864, which requires operators near coastal zones to use the “best available technology, including but not limited to, the installation of leak detection technology, automatic shutoff systems, or remote controlled sectionalized block valves, or any combination of these technologies, based on a risk analysis conducted by the operator, to reduce the amount of oil released in an oil spill to protect state waters and wildlife.”
Five of the 16 safety valves would be check valves with an automatic shut-off system for one-way flow closure, and the remaining 11 would be motor-operated valves with electrical shut off.
Appeals were filed by the Gaviota Coast Conservancy, the Tautrim Family, and GreyFox, LLC, with appellants questioning the environmental review process — the last environmental impact report being prepared nearly 40 years ago, long before the 2015 oil spill — and concern for the implications of restarting use of the pipeline, among other issues.
Nearly all of the two dozen public commenters at Wednesday’s meeting spoke in opposition to Plains’ project, asking the commissioners to uphold the appeals.
“History proves that this pipeline is a disaster,” said Brett Garrett. “It’s obvious that the result of this project is going to be oil flowing and likely oil spilling and, even if it doesn’t spill, contributing to climate crisis.”
While the project currently being considered by the County Planning Commission just involves the installation of safety valves, public commenters and environmental activists expressed wanting to put a stop to the project now to prevent the applicant from restarting oil production and use of the pipeline.
“We are facing climate disaster and our futures are at stake, our children are at stake. We are already experiencing climate disasters in our community — fires and floods, and 40 families in Guadalupe that just lost all of their homes,” said Torrie Cutbirth, who became emotional during her public comment.
“I apologize if this is not appropriate to cry passionately at a hearing, but I cannot stand any longer for fossil fuel companies to ruin and destroy the place that I call home. … When our lives are at stake, when our local species [are at stake] — not only the red-legged frog, but our bottlenose dolphins, our monarch butterflies, our beautiful Indigenous people who have called this land home for thousands of years. I beg you to end this today.”
The Planning Commission was split on whether to uphold the appeals and decided not to make any decision on Wednesday, but instead continued the item to its April 26 meeting, where staff will return with options for further environmental review.
“The ownership and operation of this pipeline is so convoluted and risky that it makes sense for the commission to want more information before making a decision,” Brady Bradshaw, senior oceans campaigner at the Center for Biological Diversity, told Noozhawk.
“But it’ll be tough for Exxon to show that the pipeline is safe for local communities and wildlife, given how harmful the 2015 Refugio disaster was. The only way to reliably avoid another spill is to make Exxon clean up its rusty pipeline and get its decaying offshore rigs out of the ocean.”
