Greka spill estimated at 84,000 gallons

BY ERIC LINDBERG
DAILY SOUND STAFF WRITER

As authorities continue to clean up a recent oil spill at a Greka Energy facility near Los Olivos, Assemblymember Pedro Nava said he plans to put together a centralized database of information about the energy company’s environmental track record.
Preliminary estimates released today by the County Hazardous Materials Division put the latest spill at 2,000 barrels, or 84,000 gallons, of crude oil and produced water. That tops the total spillage from a Dec. 7 spill at a Greka facility near Santa Maria, which is estimated at 67,000 gallons.

“This new spill underscores the urgency of the situation,” Assemblymember Nava said. “Regardless of any kind of excuse the Greka spokespeople attempt to make, there are repeated violations.”
Speaking by cell phone from the floor of the State Assembly, Nava said his office has been pulling together information about Greka since he toured the Dec. 7 oil spill.
Although he envisions a formal location for the public to find information about violations at oil facilities, he said a temporary page is being put together on his Assembly website and should be up and running by the end of the week.
“I didn’t want to wait six months to do that,” he said.
Assemblymember Nava’s initial exposure to the energy company came during that Dec. 7 tour, the same day that pump and alarm failures allowed crude oil and produced water to spew into a dry creek bed. As a result, he pulled together officials from various agencies involved with environmental protection and regulation for an emergency briefing in Santa Barbara on Friday.
That evening, an injection pump failed at the Davis Tank Battery facility north of Los Olivos. By the time Greka workers were notified by a local farmer the following morning, oil had spilled into a nearby creek and traveled about three-quarters of a mile downstream.
During the heavy rains that hit the Central Coast during the past few days, a dam built by cleanup workers collapsed, allowing oil to travel another half-mile downstream, said Lt. Jorge Gross, an officer with the Department of Fish and Game.
“Time is of the essence,” Lt. Gross said. “…We’ve got to see what the rain does tomorrow and whether it helps us or hurts us.”
Lt. Gross said cleanup workers have done an initial pass-through on half of the creek and are still working on the section more heavily impacted by the spill.
“It’s going to be a while,” he said. “We’re not talking months; maybe a week or so.”
Fire officials said they based their current estimate of the spill amount on the time of uninterrupted flow, the distance of the flow downstream, and the well’s known rate of production of crude oil.
“A similar tank failure incident occurred at this same facility on Dec. 7, 2005,” County Fire Capt. Eli Iskow said. “The flow at that time reached less than one-half of the distance downstream in the creek as this current flow. According to the EPA and State Fish and Game officials who investigated that incident, the 2005 spill was roughly 2,000 barrels as well.”
He said as the investigation continues and oil is recovered, that figure might fluctuate. He added that the federal Environmental Protection Agency joined the Department of Fish and Game in the cleanup effort today.
Meanwhile, Assemblymember Nava said he is looking into strengthening the power of regulatory agencies, with stiffer and escalating penalty schemes.
“If they continue to violate, the penalties should increase,” he said.
As far as their ability to shut down Greka facilities, Assemblymember Nava said he feels agencies have the necessary tools, pointing out abatement orders by the Air Pollution Control District and stop work orders by the County Fire Department.
He also noted the County of Santa Barbara has the power to deny Greka Energy an operating permit.
“If the county were to take a look at Greka’s record and say we have no confidence that you will operate in a safe and legal way, they can pull the permit,” he said.
Assemblymember Nava also suggested that landowners currently leasing to Greka should examine their agreements to see if the energy company has violated any terms. Despite discussing ways to shut down facilities or the company as a whole, he insisted he would prefer to have these issues resolved without needlessly putting employees out of work.
“My ultimate goal is to have a facility where their workers are safe, they are not at risk, and they satisfy their regulatory requirements,” he said. “But if they can’t do that, I don’t think they should be doing business.”