Out of Control

B ob S ollen

The oil slick covered 800 square miles of ocean from the Channel Islands to the Mexican border.

key conditions that Channelkeeper and our allies sought. Platform operators must now meet both state and federal clean water standards.

Channelkeeper and our partners also prevailed in a lawsuit against the federal Minerals Management Service for extending 37 undeveloped federal oil leases off our shores without adequate environmental review. The court agreed, supporting the state’s right to review the plan and ordering the federal agency to submit the lease extensions to the state Coastal Commission for review. The Minerals Management Service’s environmental assessment found that extending the leases would pose no significant risks to the environment. So, in March 2005, Channelkeeper and our allies filed a legal challenge arguing that the agency violated the National Environmental Policy Act.

In August 2005 we won a double victory when the California Coastal Commission rejected the federal government’s determination that extending the leases is consistent with the California Coastal Management Program. The following day, a federal district court ruled that the agency could not extend the leases until it completed full environmental review of all the potential environmental impacts.

Unfortunately, the federal government quickly appealed this decision. Meanwhile, another federal court ruled that the government was in breach of contract with oil companies and awarded restitution to the lessees. This remains under negotiation; but if the government pays restitution, the leases will be extinguished.

Today, pressure continues to mount for additional oil production in the Santa Barbara Channel. Several new oil projects have been proposed, including Venoco’s plan to install a 175-foot drilling rig and drill 35 wells on the coast just above a harbor seal sanctuary and a public park in Carpinteria, ten miles south of Santa Barbara. Channelkeeper will continue to monitor and weigh in on any pending proposals to ensure that oil production in the Santa Barbara Channel is as clean and safe as possible and complies with all applicable environmental laws, so that another preventable disaster like the ‘69 blowout does not once again desecrate our precious coast.

By Tracy Kuhns, Lower Mississippi Riverkeeper

»On January 20, 2007, sometime between 10 p.m. and 2 a.m., a tugboat hit a newly drilled oil wellhead in Bayou Perot in Barataria, Louisiana, 30 miles southwest of New Orleans. The tug operator did not stop and the well spewed oil into the wetlands until daylight before the Coast Guard was notified. By noon emergency response folks began containment.

Nearly 300,000 gallons of oil spread into Lake Salvador and cypress swamps to the north, and Little Lake, a salt marsh area, to the south. Booms were deployed and emergency response personnel went into marsh areas to ‘haze’ birds and wildlife out of area. Oil was cleaned from marsh, mud flats and wildlife, including alligators. Everything, they told us, was under control. But the experience of our local

Broken underwater wellhead shoots oil into the air 25 miles southwest of New Orleans. Booms are used to contain oil from the January 2007 spill. In a typical spill, 80 percent of the oil sinks or volatizes into the air. The Coast Guard considers a 20 percent recovery rate of spilled oil a success.

family fishermen tells us we need to look beyond the surface waters to the water bottom. The Barataria Basin is home to people whose livelihood and culture is dependant on the natural resources. Folks in our community fish commercially for shrimp, crabs and fish. But the basin is rich in oil, as well as seafood. Time and again oil spills occur and we are told they have been cleaned up. But more often than not, when our fishermen begin shrimping, their nets come up covered in oil tar. Sometimes, as happened after Hurricane Katrina, residues can contaminate seafood. If even a small amount of that seafood inadvertently hits the market it can destroy the price for seafood harvested throughout the state, causing not only potential adverse health effects to consumers, but severe economic harm to resource dependent families and communities.