Supes discuss recent Greka oil spills

By COLBY FRAZIER — Jan. 7, 2009

After agreeing what boards and commissions they plan to serve on in the coming year, the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors yesterday discussed a recent spate of onshore oil spills in North County.

According to a county staff report, oil has marred local soil 17 times in the last three months, totaling more than 15,000 gallons of spilled crude oil and polluted water.

Seven of the spills occurred in December, six at sites operated by Greka Energy Corp., which for the last year has come under fire from local regulators for a shaky track record that, since 2003, has resulted in more than 300,000 gallons of oil spills.

Second District Supervisor Janet Wolf requested yesterday’s briefing despite a hearing scheduled for next week on the matter.

While the most recent Greka spills, ranging in size from 9,240 gallons to 11 gallons, are far smaller than two spills last winter that totaled more than 100,000 gallons, Wolf said she thought it important to hear from county staff on the recent string of spills.

Though she didn’t name Greka directly, Wolf compared the embattled energy company to a child who’s been given multiple chances, but in the end, fails to live up to expectations.

“I feel like we’ve been watching these five kids, or 18 kids in this case, and there’s one, maybe two, but certainly one stands out and you don’t have to be stupid to look at the numbers,” she said. “At some point we have to take some action… We have to take stricter action on the ones who are doing the most harm.”

The supervisors are scheduled to hear a full report about onshore oil spills and drilling on Jan. 13.

With this meeting on the horizon, not all were happy Wolf had the discussion placed on yesterday’s agenda as well.

Andy Caldwell, executive director of the Coalition of Labor, Agriculture and Business (COLAB), said the board was flirting with a violation of the open meeting guidelines defined in the Brown Act by having a discussion without providing adequate information in the agenda.

“Follow the law,” Caldwell said as he scolded the supervisors. “There’s a thing called an open meeting law; are you activists or are you supervisors.”

All that accompanied the agenda item was a graph showing the size and site of all onshore spills in the county since the beginning of October of last year.

On the other hand, David Landecker, executive director of the Environmental Defense Center, said during public comment that the time has passed to be “disappointed” in Greka for not changing its ways, and the time to act is now.

“If a restaurant continued to poison people, after a year of hearings, it would be closed down,” he said. “You’ve been elected to enforce the law. It’s time to do it. Let’s close [Greka] down.”

First District Supervisor Salud Carbajal, whose been one of the most outspoken critics of Greka and its years of spilling, said there are certain limitations to simply shutting Greka down that have been discussed by the supervisors during closed session. As such, the board isn’t supposed to talk about it in public.

But Carbajal directed county counsel to advise the board on what can and can’t be said about the closure of Greka during next week’s meeting.

He said he hopes to have a public discussion about “what it will take and what is the threshold for us to be able to shut down a company. I think the public wants to better understand that and I think we owe it to the public.”

Greka’s president, Andrew DeVegvar, told the board he felt bad about the recent spills, one of which was caused by operator error.

DeVegvar ensured the board he fired the employee responsible and made other changes at the facility, located on Palmer Road. Shortly after the third spill at the facility, the county fire department ordered it closed until sufficient repairs can be made.

Since Greka first came under fire for its shaky history in the county a year ago, DeVegvar said he feels major steps have been taken to ensure Greka is a company that isn’t “vilified and can be respected.”

“I’m extremely frustrated about it because we’ve made progress,” he said. “I think Greka can be a good member of this community.”

Next Tuesday’s board of supervisors meeting will be in Santa Maria. A full report on Greka and other onshore oil companies will be discussed.

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Greka : 1/7/2009

Why would this company be allowed to continue polluting and poisoning various communities? Clearly they don't have their stuff together. Who is their friend and godfather, allowing them to continue? Shame on the Board of Supervisors for allowing this incompetent company to continue.

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