Plains All American Pipeline will host its third and final open house Thursday night in Goleta, a day after holding a similar session in Santa Maria to talk about a proposal to replace pipelines used to transport crude oil from the Central Coast.
The Houston-based firm has proposed replacing underground Lines 901 and 903 to restore its pipeline transportation of crude oil in Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo and Kern counties.
The proposal includes replacing Line 901, which ruptured and caused the May 2015 crude oil spill near Refugio State Beach on the Gaviota Coast.
“It’s a replacement of an existing pipeline, and there’s a long permitting process,” Steve Greig, director of government affairs for Plains, said about the project.
After informal meetings in Arroyo Grande and Santa Maria, Plains plans to hold a final meeting, which also will employ an open house format, from 3:30 to 7 p.m. Thursday at the Goleta Elks Lodge, 150 N. Kellogg Ave.
The meetings organized by Plains aimed to educate the public about construction of Line 901R and Line 903R, and featured Plains representatives and supporters ready to explain the proposal for the pipeline system.
Attendees learned about assorted aspects of the project through conversation with Plains representatives.
“The main reason we’re here is to provide information,” Greig said.
The Plains proposal is one of several oil-related projects making their way through the approval process in Santa Barbara County, with supporters saying they would bring jobs and opponents citing several environmental concerns.
While some companies such as Exxon Mobil drill for oil, and others, including Phillips 66, refine it, Plains serves as the transporter.
Plains has proposed replacing 124 miles of pipeline with Line 901R, running from Las Flores Canyon near Santa Barbara and traveling north to Gaviota, Buellton, Santa Maria and Sisquoc. Line 903R would then run from Sisquoc to the Pentland Delivery Point near Taft in Kern County.
A possible second segment would provide a link to the Phillips 66 Santa Maria Refinery in Nipomo, if the customer seeks that alternative.
With small variations, the new pipelines will follow the same route as the existing lines, going into parts of three counties.
However, in Buellton the route would be moved to the city’s western edge. Since the existing pipeline’s installation, Buellton has grown, so Line 901 now goes under sidewalks and even a few backyards.
The replacement pipelines boast several differences from the system that ruptured and spilled oil in Santa Barbara County — and currently sits unused due to the shutdown.
“The first and the most significant is the reduced size,” Grieg said, adding that the existing line size is 24 inches to Gaviota and 30 inches to Kern County.
By comparison, the replacement pipeline, featuring state-of-the-art technology, will range from 12 to16 inches.
“That’s the absolute biggest change in the design,” Grieg added.
Instead of being designed to carry up to 300,000 barrels, or 12.6 million gallons, a day, the pipeline could transport 40,000 barrels, or 1.7 million gallons, daily.
The proposal also calls for other safety measures, including twice as many shut-off valves.
“Essentially, what that means is it just adds more protection along the line,” Grieg added.
Plains also added more pumping stations — going from two to four.
“That allows us to significantly reduce the pressure on the line in some places to half of what it was in the existing (line),” he added.
Last spring, the Santa Barbara County Planning and Development Department’s Energy Division announced the firm had submitted a complete permit application package for the construction of Line 901R and 903R.
The county’s declaration began the environmental review process, with a scoping meeting expected to be held around the end of February. At that meeting, residents can suggest areas that need to studied as part of the analysis of potential environmental impacts.
Grieg estimated Plains could receive approval to begin construction on the replacement pipelines by summer 2021, with that work expected to last up to 14 months. Oil could begin moving through the pipelines by summer 2022, according to the estimate.
— Noozhawk North County editor Janene Scully can be reached at jscully@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.