Santa Barbara Oil Spill

For Immediate Release, May 21, 2015 Contact: Miyoko Sakashita, (510) 845-6703,  miyoko@biologicaldiversity.org Pipeline Owner in Santa Barbara  Oil Spill Has Had 175 Spill Incidents Since 2006 SANTA BARBARA, Calif.—  The company that owns the pipeline involved in  Tuesday’s major oil spill in Santa Barbara has had  175 incidents (mostly oil spills) nationwide since  2006, including 11 in California, according to a  Center for Biological Diversity analysis of  federal documents. Photo of oil on Santa Barbara beach courtesy U.S. Coast Guard. This photo is available for media use. Plains Pipeline (a subsidiary of Plains  All-American Pipeline) has also had  federal enforcement actions initiated  against it 20 times since 2006 for its  operations across the country, according  to data from the U.S. Pipeline & Hazardous  Materials Safety Administration. Many of  those cases involve corrosion control  and maintenance problems on its pipelines,  including two cases in 2009 for which  the company was fined $115,600. “This company’s disturbing record  highlights oil production’s toxic threat  to California’s coast,” said Miyoko  Sakashita, the Center’s oceans program  director. “Oil pipelines and offshore fracking and drilling endanger our fragile marine  ecosystems. Every new oil project increases  the risk of fouled beaches and oil-soaked  sea life.” The ruptured oil pipeline near Refugio  State Beach — a 24-inch wide, 11-mile  long section carrying oil from offshore  platforms and an Exxon Mobil processing  plant onshore — leaked as much as 105,000  gallons of crude oil, including 21,000  gallons making it into the ocean, fouling  about nine miles of coastal waters and beaches. The broken pipeline was 28 years old and  operated by a company that has been repeatedly  warned by government regulators to improve its  procedures and control corrosion for its pipelines.  Plains Pipeline had five incidents in California in  2014 alone, including the one that dumped oil  into a Los Angeles neighborhood a year ago. Hundreds of miles of oil pipelines run through  California’s coastal areas, posing a serious  threat of spills. A review released by the Center  for Biological Diversity of federal data over the  past 30 years shows that such oil spills from  pipelines are a common and costly byproduct  of oil production that has been rapidly  increasing in the United States, including  offshore.  An analysis of federal pipeline data commissioned  last year by the Center showed there have  been nearly 8,000 serious pipeline breaks  nationwide since 1986, causing more than  2,300 injuries and nearly $7 billion in property  damage.  The vast majority of those incidents have  involved oil pipelines, spilling more than 2  million barrels into waterways and on the  ground. More than 35 percent of these incidents  have been caused by corrosion or other  spontaneous structural failures. The Santa Barbara Channel is rich in biodiversity,  including whales, dolphins and more than 500  species of fish. Endangered blue whales often  feed in the channel, and it is in the migration path  for four other whales listed under the Endangered  Species Act. Witnesses spotted sea lions and  migrating whales in the coastal waters as the  spill was taking place Tuesday. The Santa Barbara County coastline was the site  of an oil platform explosion in 1969 that spilled  up to 100,000 barrels of oil. “If we’re learned anything over the past 50 years,  it’s that coastal oil production remains inherently  dangerous to wildlife, local communities and  health of the planet,” Sakashita said.  “To protect our coast, we need to stop  offshore drilling and fracking and quickly  transition to cleaner energy sources.” Offshore fracking has been used hundreds of  times in recent years off California’s coast, and  oil companies are also making increasing use of  techniques like acidizing to coax oil from  beneath the ocean. The Center for Biological Diversity is a national,  nonprofit conservation organization with more  than 825,000 members and online activists  dedicated to the protection of endangered  species and wild places.