Lessons from the 2015 Gaviota oil spill
A group of uniformed workers and patrolmen watch from above as the locals shuttle 50-pound buckets of black goop up and down the Gaviota bluffs, past the emergency beach evacuation signs. Several times throughout the day, citizens are informed they are risking arrest in ignoring police evacuation orders, however, they persevere.
Orange home-depot buckets aggregate in the parking lot as the Santa Barbara locals, whose flip-flops and t-shirts are coated in sticky tar, work tirelessly into the evening.
It’s been 24 hours since the All Plains Oil Pipeline ruptured. Holding a suffering pelican coated in oil, Santa Barbara local Dean Plaister asks himself ‘Where the hell is everyone?’
Photo Courtesy of Dean Plaister
What happened?
On May 19, 2015, oil spilled off the coast of Refugio State Beach — shutting down nearly 136 miles of coastline.
All Plains workers uncovered a breach in line 901: a 10-mile, 30-year-old pipe that pumped on average 2,000 barrels of crude oil every hour. 901’s rupture was discovered at 1:30 p.m, however, the call to the Coast Guard Response Center wasn’t made until nearly 3 p.m..
Non coincidentally, Plains operated the only pipeline out of the county’s jurisdiction. Thus, they were exempt from local regulations and maintenance procedures. According to the Damage Assessment and Restoration Plan (DARP), this allowed for poor management practices and inadequate regulation — resulting in environmental catastrophe.
Plains All American Pipeline officials assert that 901 was shut off, however, the absence of an automatic valve on the 30-year-old line allowed for oil to flow freely into the ocean for over an hour. This event marked the worst spill since 1969, depositing 451,500 gallons of crude oil in the waters and coastlines of the central coast.
When it ruptured, the pipeline wall was one-sixteenth of an inch thick.
What has Santa Barbara learned from their second oil disaster? Has the environmental response protocol improved? Are the ecosystems still tainted from that day in the Spring of 2015? We’re individuals and negligent companies held responsible?
Impact
University of California Natural Reserve System, who has been tracking these coastal ecosystems for over 50 years, estimates the spill impacted over 1,5000 acres of shoreline and 2,1000 acres of ocean. It killed an estimated 600 birds, 150 seals, and seal lions, and 75 dolphins.
Zach Winner, born and raised in Santa Barbara, remembers weeks of beach closures and batches of tar that would wash up on the sand.
“It was really upsetting — the spill being in our own backyard and harming the place I grew up with,” Winner said. “I remember it being summer, and my parents not letting us go surfing or to certain beaches we loved to hang out at.”
Winner, now serving as chair on Isla Vista Surfrider and graduating from UCSB, asserts that more must be done to protect the pristine environment of Santa Barbara.
“I’ve lived here my entire life. It’s such a special and beautiful place to call home. It’s a bummer to know that there are people and companies that don't have it’s best interest at heart.”
DARP, a survey of the effect five years after the incident, highlights the evidence of long-term, negative impacts on natural resources.
The report highlights the impact of tar on the kelp forests that thrive in the channel. The spill negatively impacted all facets of the ocean, from bird populations to plankton central for the ecosystem to function.
DARP aims to return the habitat and wildlife to pre-spill conditions through restorative projects. However, bureaucratic processes and planning require time, and thus restoration efforts are still in the planning stages several years after the incident.
A year after the incident, Former Attorney General Kamala Harris announced that Plains All-American Pipeline was indicted by a grand jury on 46 criminal charges relating to the Refugio spill.
An employee, James Buchanan, was further indicted on criminal charges for negligence and failure to alert emergency response officials.
According to Harris, they were tried for violating both the Clean Water Act and the Pipeline Safety Act.
“The carelessness of Plains All-American harmed hundreds of species and marine life off Refugio Beach,” Harris said in a press release. “This conduct is criminal and today’s charges serve as a powerful reminder of the consequences that flow from jeopardizing the well-being of our ecosystems and public health.”
According to the UC Natural Reserve System, initial negotiations with Plains All American Pipeline concluded in $60 million in damages and penalties for the environmental and response costs.
However, two years later, a federal judge approved a $230 million settlement for property and business owners — $180 million of which goes to fishers.
Have we learned?
This is not the first, or even most disastrous, spill to take place in Santa Barbara waters. Despite the blunders of the Gaviota spill response, Santa Barbara has taken extensive measures to stop it from happening again.
Officials examined the mistakes made in 2015, directly applying new legislation to eliminate the potential for these failures to repeat. While a few rigs continue to operate, Santa Barbara has upped inspections and practices surrounding oil drilling.
Following the 2015 Spill, legislators based SB 414 to improve rapid response protocol in the event of spill.
Further, legislators reflected on the issues with line 901 — it was nearly 30 years old, without an automatic shut-off valve, and underwent extensive corrosion. In response, a second bill asserts that any operations require annual in-depth inspections and mandates an automatic shut-off valve.
Additionally, Santa Barbara officials have rejected risky proposals since the spill. The Santa Barbara Board of Supervisors rejected an EXXON trucking proposal. ExxonMobil intended to recommission three platforms that were shut down after the 2015 spill. They drew up a proposal using tanker trucks to transport 460,000 gallons of oil up and down the coast everyday.
After meticulous analysis, the County found the project to be at high risk of disaster — ultimately rejecting the proposal.
Jessica Dias, the Development Director at the Environmental Defense Center (EDC), asserts the County’s rejection shows greater mindfulness and consideration in decision-making.
“Our research and advocacy resulted in a denial of the ExxonMobil trucking project by the Board of Supervisors despite [Exxon’s] recommendation for approval,” said Dias. “The board really took into account our research showing the project's significant and unavoidable harm to biological, water, and cultural resources in the event of a spill, as well as other threats to public health, safety, and general welfare.”
According to Dias, in 2015, EDC also created plans to mitigate future spills and improve response approaches. EDC worked with the U.S. Coast Guard to, for instance, streamline communication processes, assess necessary technological improvements, and establish volunteer management in case of future events.
Additionally, Dias attributed the engagement of Santa Barbara County Fire Department (SBCFD) as ‘incident commander’ to EDC — giving them authority to take immediate action and the training to initiate rapid response.
This drastically improves the efficacy and speed of response, mitigating the magnitude of future incidents. Following the Gaviota spill, SBCFD and personnel were deterred by regulatory processes that prevented them from taking immediate action.
According to Winner, we also need to better engage and raise awareness in the Santa Barbara community. He says educating children on the environment should be better integrated into the curriculum.
“When I was in school here, the rigs were such a mystery. We never learned about them, which I think is super important to improve for future generations of kids,” Winner said. “I personally believe bad people can get away with a lot more when people don’t know what’s going on.”
Dias concludes that, regardless of how many ways you plan, catastrophes are inevitable with fossil fuels. “There is no completely risk-averse approach. EDC has always prioritized action to prevent the irresponsible drilling off our coastlines,” Dias said.
“The Refugio Spill should inspire us to transition from fossil fuels to renewables. It’s important we voice change to policymakers on how we want to treat the environment and the way that we want to treat the environment,” Dias said.