Oil Platforms Upcoast From Malibu Are Rusty And Pose Danger to Malibu
Written by 991KBU on April 12, 2018
An environmental group is charging that oil and gas companies drilling in the ocean off Southern California violated regulations nearly 400 times over the past three years.
The Center for Biological Diversity says severe corrosion … failed and missing tests and other violations have been racked up by the companies operating up the coast from Malibu .. and in Orange County.
But the state has assessed zero in civil penalties were issued for any of the violations.
The violations don’t include platforms in federal waters, where President Donald Trump intends to expand oil and gas drilling.
The oil platforms off Santa Barbara and Ventura are more than 60 years old … rusting …. and pose a serious threat to the beaches in Malibu and along the entire Southern California coast.
if aging infrastructure fails and spills oil on beaches near major cities.
Three years ago … a corroded two-foot wide pipe owned by Plains All American Pipeline ruptured on land and spilled 120,000 gallons of offshore crude that flowed toward the Santa Barbara coast. More than a fifth of the oil ended up in the ocean.
The Center for Biological Diversity … based in Tucson … filed a California Public Records Act request for at the state Division of Oil, Gas and Geothermal Resources.
The operations at Rincon Island … off the Ventura County coast … were cited by state regulators for being in a “severe state of disrepair,”
The state is seeking $100 million from the Legislature this year to plug wells and decommission Rincon Island and Platform Holly, which has been idle off Santa Barbara.
