Santa Barbara County joined a long list of cities, counties and school districts opposing an oil-by-rail project in southern San Luis Obispo County.
Eighteen months ago, the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors agreed to ask their counterparts to the north to reject the request to expand a rail spur at the Phillips 66 refinery just north of the county line.
The refinery currently receives its oil by pipeline, and the Houston-based energy company wants to process oil transported by train.
Supervisors Das Williams, Janet Wolf and Joan Hartmann voted on Tuesday to send another letter to San Luis Obispo County’s board urging it to deny the project.
Fifth District Supervisor Steve Lavagnino was out of town on county business, and Fourth District Supervisor Peter Adam recused himself, saying “this issue is really beyond our jurisdiction. We’ve already taken a position.”
The project would modify an existing rail spur to allow for crude oil brought by train to be unloaded at the refinery. It would include a nearly 7,000-foot rail spur, construction of five parallel tracks to host unloading trains, new pipelines and an unloading facility.
According to Jefferson Litten, chief of staff to Hartmann, who requested the vote along with Wolf, the 5,200-foot trains that the new tracks would be built for can each transport nearly 2.2 million gallons of oil. Phillips 66 proposed that three trains arrive at the refinery per week.
Soon after the board’s 2015 letter opposing the project, the San Luis Obispo County Planning Commission denied the rail-spur extension after days of hearings and, according to Litten, more than 24,000 letters of opposition.
The San Luis Obispo supervisors will consider an appeal of that decision on Monday.
The three Santa Barbara supervisors’ opposition was rooted in the potential environmental impacts that oil-carrying trains could have as they pass through the county on their way up to the refinery.
Litten said notable derailments and explosions in Oregon and Quebec had spilled oil, damaged property and even killed people near the accidents.
“The train tracks go right by San Marcos High School, three elementary schools, many businesses, many residential properties, not to mention environmental habitats that are very important,” Wolf said of her district. “We’ve seen the irreparable harm and damage that an oil spill will cause our coastline.”
Several other counties, a number of school districts, and numerous cities, including Santa Barbara, Goleta and Carpinteria, have also sent letters of opposition.
Supporters of the project point to oil’s importance to both the local economy and a primarily petroleum-based society.
“Not in your staff report is how many rail cars already pass through with oil or acid or something else like that through this region,” said COLAB executive director Andy Caldwell, a frequent commenter at supervisor meetings. “If they’re not coming by rail, how much is coming by ship or truck down the freeway or offshore?”
Reducing oil dependence has to start somewhere, Williams argued.
“I want an economy that is thriving, but is also in step with the values of our community,” he said.
County budget deficit
The supervisors also continued to grapple with the county’s burgeoning budget deficit at Tuesday’s meeting.
The funding gap is driven by “emerging fiscal issues” and steadily growing salary and benefit costs, most notably employee pensions, according to county staff.
“It is anticipated that the salary and benefit cost increases will continue at higher rates than the corresponding revenue growth,” said county budget director Tom Alvarez.
“We think this is going to continue for the coming years. We therefore expect continued need for cost control and revenue generation in these coming years.”
The projected deficit for the next fiscal year, which starts July 1, is $35.4 million, he said. That number is expected to only grow in the coming years.
County departments have already submitted budgets reflecting 5-percent reductions in General Fund contributions, freeing up about $11 million for re-allocation, Alvarez noted.
Some of the main drivers behind the deficit are increasing in-patient mental health costs with the Department of Behavioral Wellness; Sheriff’s Department and Northern Branch Jail Project costs; and the Department of Social Services’ efforts to maintain its services in the face of declining funding.
The supervisors agreed that county departments would have to share in the tough times; Even as new revenue sources are sought, service-level reductions across the board are expected.
“We face severe financial challenges. It’s a multi-year problem,” Adam said. “The time to make difficult choices and start exercising some disciple is now.”
While he and his colleagues expressed reluctance to change the new Santa Maria jail’s funding plan, they showed various levels of interest in other cost-saving measures and funding priority changes, including reducing the number of mentally ill inmates in jail custody, not diverting money to the reserve fund, and back-filling areas facing declining state and federal revenues.
County budget workshops are slated to begin in April, with final hearings in June.
— Noozhawk staff writer Sam Goldman can be reached at sgoldman@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.