On March 19, 2008, a local rancher notified EPA at the UCAL command post that long-term oil spill on an access road at the Greka UCAL lease was seeping to the surface. EPA notified Greka to address the seep to prevent cattle from being contaminated. Greka fenced the seep. The seep in the road was from a leaking pipeline under the road. The U.S. Coast Pacific Strike Team (PST) acting for OSC Robert Wise on-site for the Greka Bell Spill had noticed the oil seeping into an excavation next to the road in early February 2008 and notified Greka to mitigate the problem. At that same time, Santa Barbara County Petroleum Office notified Greka to mitigate the same spill. Throughout the month of February, PST, County Petroleum and OSC Wise directed Greka to mitigate this leak. Greka did remove oil from the excavation several times but never address the underlying problem.
On March 20, 2008, Greka excavated the roadway and found a leak in an abandoned pipeline under the road. At that time OSC Wise issued a Notice of Federal Interest to Greka. The drainage from that location drains down a road, through a culvert, into a ravine that eventually drains to Bradley Canyon Creek. Bradley Canyon Creek drains to the Santa Maria River which drains to the Pacific Ocean. No oil left the excavation. On March 20, 2008, the California Department of Fish and Game Warden on-scene notified OSC Wise that he had observed the same leak as early as December 2007.
Greka is currently excavating the spill area. They have identified the spill source and placed a temporary clamp of the pipe.
1. Remove and dispose of contaminated soil off-site.
2. Purge the pipe.
3. Remove or repair the pipe (dependent on if pipe is still active)
4. Fix road
The pipe will be purged to remove all residual oil.
Greka had been notfied of this spill location numerous times by EPA, County Petroleum, Santa Barbara Air Pollution Control Distric, California Departmet of Fish and Game and PST (OSC Rep.) and failed to mitigate the problem. This constitutes negligence on Greka's part.
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