Department of Water Resources
A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment
April 2, 2008
4. Water Quality
POLLUTION ISSUES:
EPA takes reins in cleanup of oil spill by repeat polluter; Lawmakers to consider legislation as direct result of company's mistakes in Santa Barbara County - Associated Press
EPA takes over Greka Energy site cleanup; Federal officials say the oil company has been slow in cleaning up a Santa Barbara County creek polluted by the firm's leaking pipe - Los Angeles Times
RUNOFF ISSUES:
Guest Column: Time to get trash out of our bay -
POLLUTION ISSUES:
EPA takes reins in cleanup of oil spill by repeat polluter; Lawmakers to consider legislation as direct result of company's mistakes in Santa Barbara County
Associated Press – 4/2/08
By Noaki Schwartz, staff writer
LOS ANGELES -- The Environmental Protection Agency is taking control of the cleanup of an oil spill in
Officials announced the federal takeover of the
Greka, which state officials have called
"That they're federalizing this is a big deal," said Steve Edinger, assistant chief of the state Department of Fish & Game. "It's basically the EPA saying, 'We need to step in and make sure the environment is taken care of and cleaned up.' It's not something that happens very often."
In a statement issued later Tuesday, Greka contended that the EPA's assessment was inaccurate and misleading. Greka said it replaced its original contractor with another environmental cleanup company but the EPA rejected that company's health-and-safety plan.
"The bottom line: EPA's hasty actions have prevented Greka from quickly and efficiently completing the cleanup," said the statement issued through Sitrick and Company, a public relations firm hired by Greka.
Robert Wise, who works at EPA's Superfund division, said the new contractor's documents "didn't even come close to meeting regulatory requirements on paper."
He also scoffed at the idea that the company, led by Randeep Grewal, does not have the funds to pay for the cleanup -- a complaint that Greka officials have made since the county issued stop-work orders at most of their local operations.
"There's really no question as to whether Randy Grewal has the money -- oh yeah, he has the money," Wise said. "The question is whether he wants to pay for this."
While Greka is one of the smallest oil and gas producers in the state, Grewal's business interests are international. Grewal oversees Greka
Greka started operations in
Broken pumps and pipes and cracked tanks at Greka installations have led to spills totaling more than a half-million gallons of oil and contaminated water. The Santa Barbara County Fire Department has responded at least 400 times to Greka oil spills and gas leaks, resulting in fines, citations, federal and local prosecutions and EPA investigations.
In the next two weeks, state legislators are rolling out several bills that are a direct result of Greka's activities.
The bills would provide more resources to clean up inland spills, create an escalating series of fines for repeat violators and create minimum standards at inland oil facilities that state agencies could enforce. #
EPA takes over Greka Energy site cleanup; Federal officials say the oil company has been slow in cleaning up a
By Catherine Saillant, staff writer
Citing repeated delays and violations of environmental law, federal regulators Tuesday sent their own work crews to finish removing oil and contaminated water released into a
About 200 barrels of crude oil and toxic water leaked out of a corroded pipe at Greka's
Greka and its contractors failed to clean the site in a timely manner, prompting the federal government to step in, said Robert Wise, an emergency response coordinator for the EPA.
"We still have oil in the creek, and the creek is still flowing. There is a lot of wildlife in that area and a lot of cattle," Wise said. "We want to make sure it gets cleaned up properly so there is no long-term contamination."
In a statement, Greka officials said they were in the process of hiring a contractor to perform the cleanup when the EPA rejected the plan and took control of the site. When representatives of the EPA and Greka inspected the affected creek bed two weeks ago, there appeared to be no problem, Greka officials said.
"It has always been Greka's plan to clean up the
Tuesday's action is the latest slap at the Santa Maria-based oil company by federal, state and local authorities.
The state Fish and Game Department and the EPA are investigating alleged violations of environmental and safety laws. At the January hearing, county officials said the Fire Department has responded at least 400 times to oil spills and gas leaks at Greka since the energy company opened for business in 1999.
Those spills have sent more than 450,000 gallons of thick crude and polluted waters into creeks and soil, officials said. EPA regulators are supervising cleanups of spills or leaks at three Greka sites since Jan. 1, Wise said.
"We've been pretty much out there continuously since Jan. 5," Wise said, referring to a command post that the EPA had set up on one of Greka's
On Tuesday, Greka officials accused the EPA of inaccurately depicting the chain of events leading to regulators taking over the
Instead, the EPA moved ahead with its own cleanup, the statement said.
Greka bought dozens of aging oil sites and equipment in northern
Greka has taken the offensive in recent months, saying it has been the victim of sabotage by competitors and accusing regulators of singling it out for punishment.
Its attorneys have threatened to bring a $100-million lawsuit against
In late January, Greka announced a new "green" initiative and said it would pour millions of dollars into upgrading its old pipelines, leaky tanks and faulty pumps. EPA's Wise said much of Greka's problems can be traced to outdated equipment and poor maintenance. The firm faces fines of up to $32,500 per day for each violation. Greka also will be billed for the cost of the EPA cleanup that started Tuesday.
"They keep telling us they've spent tens of millions of dollars upgrading their equipment," Wise said. "But we haven't seen any evidence of it." #
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-greka2apr02,1,1476238.story
RUNOFF ISSUES:
By Paul Sisson, staff writer
In 2006, the California Water Resources Control Board awarded
In order to get the grant, the city said in its application that high bacteria levels were responsible for 16 days of beach closures in 2005 and for the 31 days that the beach spent on warning status.
The treatment plant is designed to solve that problem, officials have said.
On Tuesday, construction crews worked to install a long pipe along the northern edge of the creek where it empties onto the beach. The pipe will extend from the new plant, which is being built just across the street, on the edge of the city's existing La Salina Wastewater Treatment facility.
The treatment system will be housed inside a concrete bunker and will use pumps and light-emitting equipment to cleanse water in the summer months, city officials have said. Crews finished pouring concrete for an outlet structure on the beach last week.
Guss Pennell,
"It won't be ready to flow until sometime in July, if we're lucky," Pennell said, adding that recent winter storms slowed construction progress in early March.
Donnell Wilcox, a construction manager for Carollo Engineering, the company hired to oversee construction of the plant, said Tuesday that the project is 65 percent complete.
He said building the concrete box has been complicated by occasional high tides that can make pouring concrete difficult. When construction got under way, crews built a sand berm to try to protect the area.
"Even that berm didn't always stop the water," Wilcox said.
He added that, when complete, the beachside concrete structure will be covered with the same rock "rip rap" that protects nearby oceanfront homes.
"When it's finished, you wont even be able to tell it's there. It will be built right into the rocks," Wilcox said. "There will just be a manhole on the top for maintenance."
When the plant is finished, Pennell said it should reduce or eliminate beach closures.
"Because the water will be disinfected with ultraviolet light, we will be able to pump it right into the ocean," Pennell said.
As things stand now,
When the treatment plant complete, it is expected to process 300 to 700 gallons of creek water per minute. A similar system is in operation at
Guest Column: Time to get trash out of our bay
San Francisco Chronicle – 4/2/08
By David Lewis, executive director of Save The Bay
This poisonous runoff includes plastic bags, Styrofoam cups, cigarette butts, cans, bottles and batteries that kill wildlife, smother wetlands and spoil water quality. Nearly 300,000 pounds of trash were pulled from the bay on just one volunteer cleanup day in September 2007. And a recent study found an average of three pieces of trash along every foot of streams that lead to the bay.
Our bay trash adds to a global problem, flowing through the Golden Gate to join the Texas-sized "Great Pacific Garbage Patch" floating in the
With the Bay Area population expected to grow by 15 percent to 8.1 million by 2020, runoff pollution of the bay will increase unless we make changes now in our own polluting behaviors, and require our cities to stop trash flowing through their storm drains.
Now, for the first time, the San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board is proposing new regulations for storm water that would require cities to reduce trash flowing to the Bay. Thousands of residents are backing the agency's crackdown on trash, as are more than 20 state and federal legislators and almost 40 community organizations and environmental groups who agree that trash should be reduced like mercury and other urban runoff pollutants.
Some Bay Area cities and counties are resisting trash restrictions as too costly. But for decades the bay has paid the price in strangled wildlife, smothered habitat and blighted shorelines.
Every polluter in history has argued it couldn't afford to clean up. But we reduced raw sewage from cities and toxic pollution from factories that used to spew into the bay through tough laws and regulations that have worked. Legal mandates force polluters to clean up their act and create requirements for public infrastructure funding to improve water quality. Applying the federal Clean Water Act to bay trash is decades overdue.
Although the Bay Area prides itself on environmental leadership, we actually trail
The Bay Area's quality of life and economy require a healthy and vibrant
David Lewis is the executive director of Save The Bay. To learn more about the storm water restrictions, visit www.saveSFbay.org/takeaction. #
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/04/02/EDCJVRPRT.DTL&hw=water&sn=008&sc=885
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