Greka threatens county with legal action

BY COLBY FRAZIER
DAILY SOUND STAFF WRITER

Greka Energy threatened the County of Santa Barbara yesterday with possible legal action if it does not allow the spill-plagued company to reopen some of its facilities.
Saying the County Fire Department has been selective in its regulation of Greka, which has spilled nearly 200,000 gallons of crude oil onto local ground since last November, Susan Whalen, senior vice president and general counsel for Greka, said the energy company could seek more than $100 million in damages.

“While we have continued to work in good faith with the county, it has become clear that, unless [county fire] changes its arbitrary, unreasonable and subjective approach to dealing with Greka, Greka will have no other alternative but to pursue its legal rights pertaining to the damages it has sustained,” Whalen said in a letter the company faxed to County Fire Chief John Scherrei.
Whalen’s letter also sets a deadline of 5 p.m. today for the county to comply with its requests.
County Fire Capt. Eli Iskow said neither the fire department, the Environmental Protection Agency, California Fish and Game, County Air Pollution Control District or the County Petroleum Unit, all of which have responded and aided in cleanup efforts at Greka facilities, are being selective, they’re simply doing their jobs.
“We’re dealing with the situation that they present to us, which is that of a gross polluter,” Iskow said. “We’re not picking on them. We’re dealing with the issues as we find them and as we’re made aware of them by the public.”
With the EPA on scene at several of Greka’s sites, Iskow said 24 spills, ranging from one gallon to more than 100 gallons of crude oil have been discovered in the past three weeks.
He said this is in part because there is more enforcement, but that doesn’t excuse the fact that spills are occurring.
“The rate that we’re finding them are based on the fact that more people are in the field than we could possibly ever have on our own,” he said. “They’re not being picked on, they are just a consistent violator of fire code and responsible for multiple spills and releases, far more than any other operator.”
Regulatory agencies and local, state and federal elected officials began criticizing the company after a string of spills that began last November and climaxed with a 64,000 gallon crude oil spill on Dec. 7 and a more than 80,000 gallon spill on Jan. 5. Both of these two spills flowed down seasonal creek beds.
On Feb. 1, Greka announced company officials are considering laying off 100 of its workers, which accounts for half of its local workforce, as a result of the “stop work orders” that have been issued by the county.
Iskow said if Greka would use their employees to make the improvements necessary to bring its facilities up to code, there would be no need to ever lay anyone off.
“There’s an unending amount of work for them to do,” Iskow said. “We feel like everything they’re saying is to divert attention away from the facts of all these cases.”
Iskow said Greka’s 24-hour deadline to begin withdrawing stop work orders is a “public grandstand.”
“You don’t threaten the regulatory agency,” Iskow said. “Their threat doesn’t address the issue, which is that they operate unsafe facilities for the public, their employees and the environment.”