EPA ups ante for Greka

BY COLBY FRAZIER
DAILY SOUND STAFF WRITER

Officials at the Environmental Protection Agency have a pointed message for Greka Energy: “Clean up, or pay up.”
That’s what the agency hopes the spill-plagued company will hear loud and clear after it released a detailed set of orders yesterday that the company must comply with or face fines of as much as $32,500 for each violation.


“There have certainly been a rash of events going on and quite frankly, this should not be occurring,” said Steve Edinger, assistant chief with California Fish and Game, during a teleconference yesterday with local reporters. “These are preventable events and we’re looking for compliance.”
Since November, nearly 200,000 gallons of crude oil has spilled onto local ground at Greka facilities, much of which flowed into seasonal creek beds.
The EPA’s set of orders deal specifically with a spill on Jan. 5 at Greka’s Davis Tank Battery on Zaca Station Road near Los Olivos. The EPA estimates the total amount spilled at this site was about 1,200 barrels, which is more than 50,000 gallons.
“The spill that discharged into the unnamed tributary poses a substantial threat to public health or welfare,” the order says. It also notes that as of Jan. 25, oil was still visible in the creek, which was flowing with rainwater. The order says the creek feeds larger waterways that dump into the Pacific Ocean.
The site of this spill and one on Dec. 7 on Palmer Road near Santa Maria that spilled more than 60,000 gallons of crude oil remain closed until repairs can be made. At least two other Greka sites are also closed, according to a county report.
But that hasn’t stopped the spills.
On Tuesday, crude oil and polluted water spewed from a broken underground pipe at the Palmer Road facility. Fire officials said this pipe was one of many faulty pieces of equipment that were identified after the initial spill that Greka was supposed to fix.
It’s not known what the cost to Greka is each day one of their facilities is closed and the bill for cleanup efforts, which have included private contractors, California Fish and Game, EPA, County Fire, hazardous materials crews and Greka employees, hasn’t likely been totaled.
Whatever that sum ends up being, it could be significantly higher if the EPA dings the company with a $32,500 penalty each time is slips up.
Some of the things Greka must begin implementing immediately or face the fine, is to repair all damaged equipment, prevent further releases and impacts from past spills, remove all petroleum contaminated media released to the environment, such as crude oil, produced water, contaminated creek waters and contaminated soil along all access roads.
Greka must also provide a daily update to an EPA on-site director,
Mary Simms, a spokeswoman for the EPA, said the $32,500 fine can be attached to any violation and there is no ceiling to how high the fines may rise each day.
When asked if and when Greka will be subjected to fines associated with the actual spills, Simms said that dollar amount wouldn’t be determined until the conclusion of an ongoing investigation.
A number of spills at Greka facilities in the past two weeks have been attributed in part to the wet weather.
But a county fire official said in a recent Daily Sound story that all of the local oil and gas companies were dealing with the same rain and spills were isolated to Greka.
Simms agreed, saying: “Rain shouldn’t have caused what it did cause.”
Edinger said most companies have adopted the belief that after paying steep fees for spilling, it’s cheaper to keep the oil in the tanks.
“I think that message has not gotten across,” Edinger said. “We’re seeing an unusually high amount of violations from this particular company and are concerned about the recent track record of non compliance.”
Robert Emmers, a spokesman for Greka, said the company is and will continue doing everything it can to minimize the impacts of past spills and prevent future incidents.
“I think we can say that, as the EPA pointed out in their press release, the Greka crews have been working very diligently down there under EPA direction to get everything cleaned up,” he said. “In terms of the actual details of the EPA order, Greka will be dealing with that appropriately.”
On Jan. 15, the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors authorized county staff to being drafting a number of new ordinances that will clamp down on spill-prone energy companies.
Beyond fines, ordinances and sharp rhetoric, some local officials, which include Assemblyman Pedro Nava and First District Supervisor Salud Carbajal, have said they’ve seen enough from Greka and believe the company’s local operations should be shut down.
Just hours after the EPA released their order, the county issued its own set of beefed up actions. They include making at least two inspections per week on oil production facilities in the county, conducting pre-emptive inspections on “high-risk” sites and providing regular briefings for county, state and federal officials about local energy operators.
“Flagrant violators will not be tolerated in Santa Barbara County,” Carbajal said yesterday. “We will shut down any oil operator when their facilities fail to meet environmental and safety requirements.”