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Burst pipe causes oil spill near condor sanctuary
| Wednesday, Jan 31 2007 9:55 PM
Last Updated: Wednesday, Jan 31 2007 9:59 PM
About 200 to 300 gallons of oil were spilled in the Los Padres National Forest on Tuesday and ran into a nearby creek, the Bureau of Land Management said Wednesday.
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It happened in the Sespe Oil Field when a pipe containing a mixture of groundwater and oil burst, said BLM spokesman David Christy. The mixture was about 90 percent groundwater.
The oil field is on private land within the forest's boundaries, north of Fillmore.
The spill made its way about two miles down Tar Creek, Christy said. An oily sheen on the water due to natural seepage of oil and tar into the water made it difficult to determine if the oil made it farther downstream, he said.
Tar Creek runs along the Sespe Condor Sanctuary, but the oil is not believed to have reached that far downstream.
"Being fairly close to the condor facility we take it pretty seriously," Christy said. "But (this) is a relatively small amount of oil."
Public access and recreation are not affected by the incident and no endangered species appear to be impacted, said Los Padres National Forest spokeswoman Kathy Good.
The incident drew rebukes from environmental groups and Rep. Lois Capps, D-Santa Barbara, who has been a vocal critic of more oil and gas drilling in the forest.
In 2005, the U.S. Forest Service approved a plan to allow oil drilling on an additional 50,000 acres of the Los Padres National Forest. Most of the land is protected, though, and on all but about 4,300 acres oil would have to be accessed by off-site slant drills located on unprotected or private land.
"The oil companies can't even control spills at existing drilling sites, why should we let them ruin even more of our forests and rivers?" asked Jeff Kuyper, executive director of Los Padres ForestWatch, an environmental group based in Santa Barbara.
"This spill confirms what I have been saying for years, drilling for oil is a dirty business," Capps said in a statement issued by her office.
Capps expressed particular concern for the endangered California Condors in the nearby sanctuary.
Drilling has been allowed in some parts within the forest boundaries for more than a century.
Production on the Sespe Oil Field has been active for decades, Christy said.
The site where the spill occurred is leased by Vintage Production California, a recently acquired subsidiary of Occidental Petroleum.
Since the acquisition a little more than a year ago, the company has invested heavily in infrastructure upgrades at Vintage properties and cut the number of spills by 50 percent, according to Susie Geiger, a spokeswoman for Vintage.
"I think this shows what kind of business we are," she said. "We're good stewards of the environment and we take this seriously."