Santa Barbara County Action Network’s (SBCAN) appeal of a staff-level decision to allow trucking of crude oil from a facility near Lompoc to Coalinga is scheduled to be heard by the Santa Barbara County Planning Commission on Aug. 14.
In April, the Santa Barbara County Planning Department staff approved a land use permit to allow Sentinel Peak Resources to build a truck loading facility — or truck rack — near Lompoc.
The truck rack would allow the company’s oil production in the Purisima Hills north of Lompoc to resume more than two years after it was halted by the closure of the Phillips 66 Santa Maria Refinery.
The permit allows the company to haul an average of six tanker loads 165 miles from the Purisima Hills to Coalinga every day for up to 50 years.
In its appeal, SBCAN notes that the staff decision to forgo an environmental impact study and public hearings comes just over two years after the county Board of Supervisors denied a similar request by ExxonMobil. That proposal would have allowed the restart of offshore oil production, which was halted after the Refugio oil spill nine years ago.
The ExxonMobil proposal underwent a full environmental impact report and dozens of organizations and individuals testified at hearings before the Board of Supervisors and the Planning Commission.
The board found that the economic benefits did not outweigh the risks of truck crashes and the impacts of oil spills on the environment.
The Environmental Defense Center (EDC) represented SBCAN and others in the ExxonMobil proceedings. EDC presented compelling evidence regarding the dangers of trucking crude oil on our roads and highways, including fatal accidents, oil spills affecting waterways, and fires, according to SBCAN.
“There’s no reason to expect that trucking crude oil from Lompoc to Coalinga will be any less dangerous than from Gaviota to Maricopa,” said Ken Hough, SBCAN co-executive director.
“The route to Coalinga includes two-lane state highways with significant accident histories, especially in San Luis Obispo County,” he said.
SBCAN Board member Janet Blevins of Lompoc cited both local and global dangers: “With climate change impacts growing every year, now is not the time to restart aging oil-production infrastructure,” she said. “And here in Lompoc, trucks laden with 7,000 gallons of crude oil coming down Harris Grade to the Wye at Highway 1 would conflict with heavy local traffic, especially with school buses during the school rush hours.”
“The county should deny the permit or at least require a full environmental impact report and public hearings if the applicant wants to proceed,” said Hough.
Community members can attend the Aug. 14 hearing in person or online, or to send comments to the Planning Commission. For more, visit www.sbcan.org/sign_up.