Greka facility spills oil into creek

BY ERIC LINDBERG
DAILY SOUND STAFF WRITER

A day after an emergency hearing called to discuss the track record of Greka Energy Corp., another mishap at a Greka facility spilled crude oil and processed water into a creek north of Los Olivos.
County firefighters arrived at the Davis Tank Battery facility at 7:30 a.m. on Saturday to find oil leaking from the tank area of the plant and flowing into a seasonal creek bed, fire officials said. A stop work order has been issued for the facility, located at 5017 Zaca Station Rd.

Workers stopped the leak at approximately 9 a.m., County Fire Capt. Eli Iskow said, after contaminants had traveled about one mile downstream with water from recent rains.
“Greka employees were actively applying absorbent material downstream and building dikes to stop the flow of crude oil as well as water diversions to limit further movement of the oil if more rain falls before cleanup can be accomplished,” Capt. Iskow said.
Oil also flowed underneath a nearby county facility, creating unsafe levels of volatile gases inside the building, he said. A county employee on the scene was told to leave the area as firefighters turned off all ignition sources and tagged the building against further entry. The nearby Firestone Winery was not impacted.
Greka officials said an injection pump failure caused the spill, similar to the cause of a Dec. 7 incident that emptied an estimated 67,000 gallons of oil and hazardous materials into a creek in Santa Maria after an injection pump and an alarm system both failed.
However, representatives of the energy company said the alarm company, HSM Electronic Protection Services, received notice of the latest pump failure at 7:08 p.m. on Friday and failed to warn Greka workers.
“It’s in their log, they acknowledge it,” Greka spokesman Mike Stoker said. “…It’s outrageous. I guarantee, as far as I’m concerned … all the costs associated with this, the cleanup and response, will be their responsibility.”
Describing the alarm company’s actions as “unconscionable and unexplainable,” Stoker said Greka officials have yet to receive an answer as to why the alarm went unheeded.
“It would be like a burglar alarm and somebody is breaking into your house and the alarm company doesn’t call the police,” he said.
Calls to the alarm company’s Santa Maria office were not immediately returned.
“Regardless of any type of alarm failure, all oil tank facilities are required to have containments in place that will hold at least one and one-half times the total capacity of all tanks should any spills occur,” Capt. Iskow said. “The failure of the Greka containment is what caused this significant oil spill into the environment.”
Initial estimates by Greka workers put the amount of the spill at around 200 barrels, or 8,400 gallons of hazardous materials. Department of Fish and Game officials, the lead oversight agency for the incident, have yet to release any estimates.
Stoker said the retention basin, designed to catch any spilled materials, had been filled with rainwater from several winter storms that passed through the region late last week. Due to a larger dilution factor as a result of those rains, he said he expects the spill to have a lessened impact on the environment.
“It might have gone farther [than the Dec. 7 spill], but I think it will be easier to clean up,” he said.
Calls to the Department of Fish and Game concerning cleanup efforts were not successful. Capt. Iskow said fire personnel will work with local and state agencies during the cleanup and investigation process, and will provide a list of specific conditions that must be met before the stop work order is lifted.
Characterizing the latest incident as not significant from a regulatory standpoint, Stoker said he feels officials have targeted Greka violations while failing to mention attempts by the company to make infrastructure improvements.
“At the end of the day, common sense should let people know that there is absolutely no incentive for an owner of a facility like this to run it willy-nilly,” Stoker said. “…Luck is just not on our side right now.”
Assemblymember Pedro Nava, an outspoken critic of Greka’s environmental track record, held a public hearing of top local, state and federal officials on Friday to discuss recent spills and help him draft legislation to prevent future incidents.
At that meeting, he slammed the energy company, saying, “It appears to me they consider fines and lawsuits part of their regular operating costs,” referring to an estimated $2.5 million in penalties and fines Greka has paid since 1999.
“At what point do we collectively come to the opinion that enough is enough?” he asked the panel of leaders. “…At what point do we say you just can’t do business here anymore?”