The Office the State Fire Marshal, which oversees pipeline safety, is imminently considering approving the restart of the pipeline that caused the 2015 Plains All-American Pipeline rupture on the Gaviota coast — internally without any environmental review by waiving the requirement for effective cathodic protection (a corrosion protection process) against corrosion. Corrosion was the cause of the leak near Refugio State Beach.
Making the decision internally, and briefing the public afterward is unacceptable.
The state Fire Marshal’s Office is an exceptionally valuable and necessary agency, protecting all of Santa Barbra County from fires. It should be supported.
However, it is not an organization with the kind of environmental expertise needed to ensure correct environmental decisions, like reopening an oil pipeline.
While it has the authority to reopen the pipeline without any environmental review by waiving the requirement for effective cathodic protection against corrosion, it should not.
Rather, it should collaborate with other state agencies equipped to undertake a California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) environmental review.
The 2015 pipeline rupture, one of the worst oil spills in California history, spilled more than 100,000 gallons of crude oil off the Gaviota coast, one of the richest and most biologically diverse stretches of the Pacific coastline.
The spill killed hundreds of animals, closed beaches, shut down fisheries and cost $750 million to clean up and mitigate.
Absent an environmental review, it would be a dereliction of authority to reopen the pipeline.
Santa Barbara County estimated that another pipeline spill would be twice the size of the 2015 spill.
Opposition to restarting the pipeline has included coastal cities, school and water districts, civic leaders and citizens throughout the area.
Moreover, the offshore platforms and associated infrastructure, which the pipeline would service, were slated for decommissioning in 2020. Santa Barbara County doesn’t need another oil spill.
The 1969 Santa Barbara oil spill, which ushered in the modern environmental movement, was quite enough.
California has not approved a new oil lease since that 1969 spill. Now is not the time to continue oil development.
Rather, it is time to acknowledge that oil is a major contributor to global warming, and ensure that infrastructure like the Plains All-American Pipeline are permanently shut down.