Petition updateBan Oil/Gas Fracking in San Luis Obispo County, CA & underground pipeline in Nipomo, CA.Long history of mistakes and problems at the Oil- Field in SLO
Kim ChaffeeCupertino, CA, United States
Apr 3, 2018
Price Canyon Oil- Field / Sentinel Peak Resources efforts to drill more wells have been plagued by a long history of mistakes and problems. Yet after years of failure and spills, cracks and leaks the oil company plans to drill 481 new wells. The Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) should suspend its lease or at the very least do not agree to allow them to produce more barrels of oil per day. If The EPA and BSEE grants the request, for more oil drilling and risky extraction practices it will put more people in this County at a greater risk of serious health problems. In addition to damage to the ecosystem, wetlands, wildlife and coastline. Injury or deaths by rig workers and their families have been in the headline news and shareholders have filed suite against misleading information from oil/gas companies owners. Class-act and Mass Tort lawsuits have followed multi-district ligation all over the world. A short story on how, I became committed to protecting our planet’s ocean and land after my hometown had an major oil spill in Michigan and after I moved to Pismo Beach from the Bay Area. One day after settled in after my move. I was taking a walk on the south-west side of the Pismo Creek in back of my new home. I expected to see wildlife and people on the creek enjoying out -door activities. Not the case, instead I ran across a sign that read: “HEALTH ADVISORY avoid water contact.” At that moment, I did notice that the water looked sick. So I started documenting all the water sources that lead from the oil field to the ocean. That is when I started to ask questions about the state of the water with every local, state and federal government officials I could contact. I went to protests, public and private citizen meetings that agreed with my concerns about the fracking dilemma and folks that had a deep fear about our waters quality. I discovered a paradox of corruptions in regards to water/land contamination, mediocre water quality and waste issues in each city in this County in one form after another from many topics. Even the New York Times Newspaper did a story on the water contamination in San Luis Obispo County, some years ago and it has only gotten much worse since their original reporting. We are not living in a 3rd world Country, yet it sure felt like it. It really would become mind blowing to learn that nothing had been done to correct these environmental heath issues. The environmental working group (EWG) became my main source for researching the many problems this county faces. I learned that the local oil field has a dangerous track record, and if it’s allowed 3-5 more years to drill on the lease in question, the population near the oil-field and 5 miles out and many other inhabitants will be thrust further in harm's way. If the oil industry cannot adequately contain or clean a spill in the their own backyard. And in fact have a long history of repeated spills, cracks or leaks, which has caused serious harm to the sensitive ocean environment, the local communities near the oil field and wildlife. The oil field knew of problems before the numerous spills, cracks and leaks and they were not prepared with a plan for prevention or relief. In fact, they have not secure the oil/gas emulsions and it is not being managed with any public notice of a clean up, recovery and reclamation activities. It is at a standstill as we speak. When citizens of these county have any oil spill in their water wells or etc, that is a massive problem and prompt notification should have followed with the rest of the neighborhood, as well. Not here in San Luis Obispo County. I would like to put the oil/gas industry on notice that their is legal consequences to this poor choice. If the EPA /BSEE denies request for an extension/extraction, it will deal a major blow to Price Canyon Road Oil -Field owners efforts. Righteously this fight would be worth it, something this county demands is to ban on-shore and off-shore fracking. Therefore further discovery of the scope of the oil/gas catastrophe damage on our water and land will become public knowledge, no more hiding behind closed doors and it will help the locals to focus on the regulatory agencies and oil/gas industry that is responsible for the water and land contamination. When it is all said and done everybody depends on a healthy environment for survival, but our water and land is at risk. If the Federal Government continues to allow Price Canyon Oil Field to explore and drill in this fragile environment then we can be sure that more spills, cracks and leaks will follow. Just because Price Canyon Oil field has spent a lot of money trying to add more oil wells doesn’t mean the government should bend the rules to accommodate them or any other company. Please sign our petition calling on EPA/ BSEE to DENY Price Canyon Oil Field request for additional years of dangerous on-shore oil fracking in San Luis Obispo County.
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