Department of Water Resources
California Water News
A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment
July 22, 2009
4. Water Quality –
Deal could revive oil drilling plans
Ventura County Star
Six pools in county test positive for West Nile virus
Hanford Sentinel
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Deal could revive oil drilling plans
Ventura County Star-7/22/09
By Timm Herdt
An agreement between Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and legislative leaders that will likely pave the way for the first offshore oil drilling project in California waters in 40 years could help open the spigot for tapping into 10.5 billion barrels of oil reserves off the state coast.
Or it could spell the beginning of the end for oil drilling off the Santa Barbara coast.
Those were among the opinions expressed by experts Tuesday in the wake of a budget agreement that resurrects the Plains Exploration and Production Co.’s proposal to drill new wells from an existing offshore platform that will tap into the state reserves along Santa Barbara County’s Tranquillon Ridge.
The deal, sought by Schwarzenegger, would allow a three-member panel dominated by two of his appointees to reconsider the project, which was rejected earlier this year by the State Lands Commission.
The proposal calls for slant-drilling new wells from an existing platform in federal waters. The wells would tap into reserves that are beneath nearby waters that fall under the state’s jurisdiction.
In exchange for a permit to proceed, the Texas-based oil company commonly known as PXP, will advance the state $100 million in royalty payments to help balance this year’s state budget. Over the life of the project, it will generate an estimated $1.8 billion in royalties to the state.
State environmental groups sounded the alarm at news of the agreement, but the umbrella group representing 20 Santa Barbara-based environmental organizations reasserted its view that the concessions offered by PXP will result in the termination of oil drilling off Santa Barbara by 2022.
“It has incredible benefits to California and Santa Barbara,” said Linda Krop, lead counsel for the Santa Barbara-based Environmental Defense Center. “It’s what (Rep.) Lois Capps has been saying and what we’ve been saying all along: It’s all about getting rid of oil.”
PXP negotiated concessions with the center that won the support of local environmentalists.
In a statement released Tuesday, the company reiterated its commitment to delivering “historic environmental benefits,” which include an agreement to cease all of its existing offshore operations and to remove all onshore processing facilities at the end of the project “in approximately 15 years.”
Without that existing infrastructure, Krop believes the threat of new drilling in the future will disappear.
“It will protect against new leasing in the future because the one place under threat is right here, where those platforms are,” she said. “We have a threat here every day. We have 20 platforms here producing every day. That hasn’t resonated statewide.”
State environmental groups view the project as a poisoned apple. They fear the promises to cease operations are not enforceable and the state’s approval of a new project will send a message to the Obama administration that it is throwing in the towel in its decadeslong war against new offshore oil exploration.
Interior Secretary Ken Salazar is in the process of reviewing the status of unsold leases along the Outer Continental Shelf.
“We’re telling President Obama that California supports offshore drilling,” said Dan Jacobson of Environment California. “I don’t see a lot of hope in being able to protect California’s coast.”
Joe Sparano, president of the Western States Petroleum Association, also believes the Legislature’s action could send a larger message — a positive one, in his view, that could melt the political iceberg that has prevented new drilling off the California coast for decades.
“A project like this that would allow drilling to take place in an area where we have clearly demonstrated we can operate safely is good news for everyone,” Sparano said.
He noted the federal Minerals Management Service has estimated there are 10.5 billion barrels of untapped oil reserves off the California coast — enough, Sparano said, to replace all of California’s oil imports for 30 years.
“The facts are that there’s a lot of oil out there, and our record, in terms of safety and the environment, has been very, very good.”
Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, said Tuesday the agreement with Schwarzenegger is that the project must include all of the concessions previously agreed to and be subjected to a public review process before a special panel that will consist of the state attorney general, the secretary of the Resources Agency and the secretary of the California Environmental Protection Agency.
The attorney general is independently elected. The two secretaries are appointees of the governor.
The project was rejected in January by the Lands Commission, which consists of two elected officials, the lieutenant governor and the controller, and one appointee of the governor, the director of the Department of Finance.
Lt. Gov. John Garamendi, chairman of the commission, said the concerns that led to the commission’s rejection still stand.
“The cessation of drilling and pumping was not enforceable,” he said. “The federal government could require the continuation of drilling and extraction from those three platforms. There’s no way to overcome that situation.”
Steinberg said the proposed agreement, which is expected to be voted on Thursday as part of a 28-bill package of budget-related legislation, gives the attorney general responsibility to oversee the enforcement.
Garamendi said the $100 million in current year revenues that approval of the project would generate is insignificant in balancing an $86 billion general fund budget. He said the project was included in the deal only because Schwarzenegger was determined to find a way to overrule the decision of a commission he does not control.
“This is about macho-macho man having it his way,” Garamendi said.#
http://www.venturacountystar.com/news/2009/jul/22/deal-could-revive-oil-drilling-plans/
Six pools in county test positive for West Nile virus
Hanford Sentinel-7/21/09
Kings County health officials say six mosquito pools in and around Hanford have tested positive for West Nile virus.
Officials said Tuesday afternoon that five were collected from Hanford and one from the area near 14th and Excelsior avenues.
Six birds from Hanford have also tested positive for the vector-borne disease, they said.
There have been no reported human cases in Kings County so far this year. But Dr. Michael Mac Lean, Kings County’s health officer, urged residents to protect themselves from the virus by avoiding mosquito bites and eliminating sources of standing water at home.#
http://hanfordsentinel.com/articles/2009/07/22/newsupdates/doc4a664953cd050746628481.txt
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