Refugio oil spill

The area was one of the earliest locations in California developed for offshore oil and gas production. Crude oil and natural gas produced by offshore platforms is processed at onshore receiving plants before being transported to distant refineries. The source of the spill was Line 901, a owned by Plains All American Pipeline. The was constructed in 1987 along the Gaviota coast to service the crude oil produced by offshore drilling. The pipeline can transport a day Truck transportation of oil was phased out in Santa Barbara County in the 1970s because pipelines were considered a safer option. The line underwent a comprehensive internal inspection in July 2012 and since then the area where the pipe broke had been repaired at least three times. After delivering their oil to onshore tanks at its Santa Ynez Unit in Las Flores Canyon, they depended on Line 901 to transport the oil from Las Flores to a pump station in a coastal canyon near Gaviota. The crude oil, known as Las Flores Canyon OCS (Outer Continental Shelf), then flowed into Line 903 as it was transported inland to gathering facilities in Kern County and on to refineries throughout Southern California. Venoco's Platform Holly located in the South Ellwood Offshore Oil Field also depended on Lines 901 and 903. Gaviota Coast The narrow coastal terrace where the spill took place is primarily used for recreation and cattle grazing. The nearest city is Goleta, about down the coast. US 101 and the main coastal railroad line both parallel the coastline and the Hondo and Harmony oil rigs can be easily seen offshore in the Santa Barbara Channel from the highway or railroad. The Gaviota coast with its Mediterranean climate is considered unique for the biodiversity of ocean life. The unusual species found here are the result of the cold water from the north meeting the warm water from the south. The annual migration of about 19,000 Gray whales through the Santa Barbara Channel was in progress at the time of the spill. They may come as close as from the shoreline. == Oil spill ==

Detection and response On May 19, 2015, the pipeline operators in Midland, Texas remotely detected pressure anomalies and shut down Line 901 at 11:30am. Fire crews found the crude oil flowing from a drainage culvert that passed under U.S. 101, and into the Pacific Ocean and reported the leak to authorities. Company officials in Bakersfield who were responsible for notifying the National Response Center did not do so until 2:56pm. The Center, staffed by United States Coast Guard officers and marine science technicians, is the sole federal point of contact for reporting all hazardous substances releases and oil spills. An oil spill triggers mandatory federal notification requirements in a timely manner but company officials said they were unable to contact employees on site as the employees were busy dealing with the immediate demands and distractions of the situation. Santa Barbara County also declared a state of emergency. The Santa Barbara emergency management team eventually recommended that the Board of Supervisors keep the proclamation of local emergency intact till until May 2016. They anticipated that a significant winter storm could bring up submerged oil and the situation could be reassessed in the spring. Ecologically sensitive area The oil quickly spread along of the coastline from Arroyo Hondo Creek to the west to El Capitán State Beach on the east. The slick reached four marine protected areas that have ecological or cultural significance: Naples, Kashtayit, Campus Point and Goleta Slough. Culturally significant land and artifacts to the Chumash people are also found in this area. An immediate concern of environmentalists was the potential use of chemical dispersants. To keep big slicks from washing ashore, dispersants can be used to break the oil into small droplets that disperse throughout the water column. There are significant concerns about the health effects of the dispersants and the effects on aquatic life. Coast Guard officials overseeing the cleanup indicated that no chemical dispersants were being used but did not immediately rule the use of them out. They reported on August 14, 2015, that a total of crude oil had leaked from the pipeline. to of oil was spilled into the ocean through a highway drainage culvert adjacent to the broken pipeline. The amount of oil leaked was later revised to over . A Unified Command (ICS) was established consisting of local, state and federal agencies. This included the United States Coast Guard, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, California Department of Fish and Wildlife including the Office of Spill Prevention and Response, and the Santa Barbara Office of Emergency Management together with the responsible party, Plains All American Pipeline. Based on lessons learned from studies of earlier spills, and using refined computer models, they predicted the spill spread and dispersion, including impacts on Los Angeles area beaches. They used this information to provide guidance to cleanup agencies and to monitor the effects on the ecosystem. Some of floating containment boom had been deployed to contain the oil by the next day. Boats and helicopters identified patches of slick in the ocean so cleanup vessels could mop up the oil. By a month after the spill, 93% of the approximately of beaches damaged after the spill had been cleaned. The remaining was the area at the spill site near Refugio State Beach and the rest of the Refugio coastline south of the spill. == Aftermath ==

Environmental effect found in Santa Barbara harbor by wildlife operations crews on May 21, 2015 The spill was much smaller than the nearby 1969 Santa Barbara oil spill on January 28, 1969 in which an oil rig blow-out spilled an estimated of crude oil over a ten-day period. The thick crude oil damaged the coats, skin, beaks, and appendages of hundreds of animals. The full impact will never be known since animals may travel a distance before succumbing to their injuries. Sixty-five live birds and sixty-three live mammals were rescued. Of the 69 animals freed after being cleaned and nursed back to health, The spill cleanup occurred during the nesting season for snowy plovers, so special precautions were necessary while cleaning up tar balls. The birds are often found on the beaches along the coast of the Oxnard plain. Their nests are hard to see in the open sand and the birds are easily frightened away by human activity leaving the eggs to fast-moving predators such as sea gulls. Least terns were another endangered species of bird that was a concern during the cleanup efforts. Marine researchers note that mammals and birds get the most attention but smaller creatures at the base of the ocean food chain are also harmed by the oil. Life on the sea floor and near the shore such as mussels, barnacles, and other shellfish are unable to move out of the way. When exposed to oil, these organisms suffer 90%-plus mortality and recovery of the population can take decades. following the Refugio spill, June 18, 2015 Researchers from the University of California, Santa Barbara began collecting samples within hours of the spill to monitor the impact on the marine environment. Researchers and volunteers returned to the area many times to collect additional samples. Since students and researchers had previously used this area for study purposes, baseline data was available. David Valentine, a professor in the university's Department of Earth Science said, “The discharge of heavy oil at Refugio presents a unique opportunity to discover novel metabolic, genomic and ecological feedbacks among marine microbial communities, heavy oil and ecosystem response. We have the opportunity to study ecosystem changes and microbial reactions from the very early stages through an entire year. It’s really rare for scientists to get day zero access to any sort of event like this.” Economic impact Plains All American Pipeline estimated that the cleanup had cost $96 million during a joint oversight hearing of the State Assembly Natural Resources Committee and Senate Select Committee on June 26, 2015. Overall expenses related to the spill were estimated to be $257 million in an earnings report for Plains All American Pipeline issued around the same time. This included the emergency response and cleanup efforts along with the expected legal claims and potential settlements. The CEO stated in the report that all but $65 million would be covered by insurance and that the figure did not include lost revenue from the pipelines that have been shut down. The economic consequences for the county were more difficult to quantify. The financial impact on the county was estimated by the California Economic Forecast Director at $74 million if Line 901 remains dormant for three years because of the dependence of the region's oil and gas industry to move product through this line. Workers' income, property taxes, and federal royalties are reduced while the line is out of service. Refugio State Beach was more heavily damaged and did not reopen until July 17, 2015. These two popular parks quickly filled up with summer crowds when they reopened. Eric Hjelstrom, California State Parks sector superintendent said, “We were booked full the day we opened. Half of the people didn’t know we had been closed, which is a good testament to how clean the park was.” Litigation toured the clean-up efforts at Refugio State Beach and surrounding areas, June 4, 2015 Almost a year after the spill, the Santa Barbara County Grand Jury handed down 46 criminal indictments against Plains. The Santa Barbara County District Attorney also announced a misdemeanor count against one of the company's employees. California state Attorney General Kamala Harris, who had also opened a criminal investigation right after spill, said this prosecution will send a message to Plains and to the oil and gas industry in California. The profound economic impacts on local fishermen, who couldn't fish during the fishery closures, led to the filing of several lawsuits. Plains All American Pipeline was ordered in March 2016 to stop misleading claimants who sought interim damages. A U.S. District Court issued an order that stated that Plains was misleading "victims towards unwittingly waiving their rights to full recovery" through the class-action lawsuit where they could obtain further compensation. The city of Santa Barbara filed a lawsuit in May 2016 seeking $2.1 million in compensation from Plains. The media coverage of the spill had created the perception that the oil spill was in the city of Santa Barbara rather than away in Santa Barbara County according to the city officials. This discouraged visitors during the peak tourism season, losing the city millions of dollars in tax revenue. The federal Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration was requested to provide all records regarding the internal inspection of Line 901 conducted in 2012 and details of all other inspections since 2013 such as maintenance data, monitoring information, incident reports and repair logs. The Environmental Defense Center of Santa Barbara (EDC), who had requested the release of the records along with the Santa Barbara Channelkeepers, filed a lawsuit against the agency in December 2015 since it had been over six months and they had not received any of the requested documents. After a jury found that their negligent practices contributed to the spill, Plains agreed in March 2020 to pay $60 million for penalties and damages. While admitting no guilt for their role leading up to the spill, the settlement by the Plains All American Pipeline Company included a consent decree with a multitude of federal regulatory and environmental agencies which includes various conditions. Oil and gas industry The estimate of $74 million financial impact over three years to the county includes approximately $37 million in lost property taxes, $32 million in lessened worker income and $5 million in reduced federal royalties. With the bankruptcy of Veneco, the state is looking at spending $58 million to begin dismantling Platform Holly. Truck transport of continuing production from the offshore platforms was not allowed by local agencies. Exceptions have been closely scrutinized by local officials such as allowing Venoco in August 2015 to transport crude oil that was already onshore by truck for a limited period. The oil had been evacuated from tanks and pipelines to allow maintenance of the onshore Ellwood facility in Goleta that serves Platform Holly. On August 15, 2017, Plains submitted an application to the Energy and Minerals Division of Santa Barbara County Planning and Development for the replacement of Lines 901 and 903. The replacement pipeline would restore crude oil pipeline transportation service in Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo and Kern Counties as the old pipelines can not be used. ExxonMobil finished the environmental impact report in 2020 of a plan to truck oil. Phillips 66 Santa Barbara County refinery was the primary destination for the trucked oil but after the release of the report it was announced that it would be closing. The Planning Commission of Santa Barbara County rejected the proposal for 78 additional truck trips a day over the steep, narrow, and winding Highway 166 to the Pentland processing plant in the San Joaquin Valley. Legislation Three bills were signed into law in response to the spill. Under a new law, the California Fire Marshal will be required to review the oil pipelines conditions every year while federal regulations only mandate a review every five years. Another new law provides for making oil spill response times faster and more effective. Finally, a new law will force intrastate pipelines to use the best-known technology such as automatic shut-off valves. Another bill was signed into law in 2020 by Governor Gavin Newsom that increased the state’s oil spill penalties for the first time in 30 years. Regulations The Pipeline Hazardous Material Safety Administration (PHMSA) is responsible for developing and enforcing regulations for pipeline operation transportation having been created in 2004 within the United States Department of Transportation. In the months following the spill, they found that the in-line inspection tool used by Plains in Line 901 and Line 903 had miscalculated the degree of corrosion. The company also withheld in-line inspection data so “it could enhance its interpretation of the data,” according to a corrective order issued by PHMSA. In October, PHMSA proposed new rules to assist in preventing such inspection discrepancies. == Restarting the pipeline ==

ExxonMobil acquired lines 901 and 903 from Plains All American Pipeline in 2022 through a subsidiary, Pacific Pipeline Company. Renamed the Las Flores Pipeline System, they are registered with the California Office of State Fire Marshall (OSFM) as CA-324 (formerly 901) and CA-325 (formerly 903). With the denial of permits to transport the oil by truck, the pipeline could enable ExxonMobil to restart its three platforms and the Santa Ynez Unit in Las Flores Canyon. Pacific Pipeline Company withdrew the application in 2023 to build a new pipeline as it planned to renovate and restart the existing lines. Sable Offshore Corp, formed to acquire the pipelines and the Santa Ynez Unit which includes the offshore oil platforms and the onshore processing facility, completes the transaction in early 2024. Financing for the $643 million sale included a $623 million loan from ExxonMobil which raised concern about the Sable's ability to handle the future expensive environmental cleanup and decommissioning facilities. After reaching a settlement with the county of Santa Barbara allowing installation of 16 underground safety valves as required by the state fire marshal, Sable began construction along the pipeline. While Sable characterized this as maintenance and repairs, the California Coastal Commission issued a cease and desist order in late 2024 and told them coastal development permits were required. The Harmony platform began oil production testing in 2025 and sent oil to the Las Flores Canyon facility with Sable reporting an extraction rate of about 6,000 barrels a day from six wells. In response to a request by Sable for federal regulatory oversight, the U.S. Department of Transportation approved the transferof regulatory control in late December to the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) from the state fire marshal. Due to the oil shortage during the Iran war, U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright directed Sable to restart the pipeline in March 2026 under the Defense Production Act. Sable started transporting oil through the pipeline from the onshore processing facility soon after the directive was issued. == See also ==