Zaca Preserve in Buellton Sues Sable over ‘Secretive Plans’ to Repair and Restart Oil Pipeline
Latest Legal Punch Against Oil Company Calls for New Easement, Financial Compensation for Lost Property Value
Sable Offshore, the oil company gunning to revamp the pipeline that ruptured in the Refugio Oil Spill nearly a decade ago, has been hit with another legal punch following this year’s litigation with Santa Barbara County and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife — this time from Zaca Preserve, LLC, a 138-acre piece of undeveloped land north of Buellton. Representatives of the preserve sued Sable on October 3 over claims that Sable’s “unsupported and secretive plans” to repair and restart the oil pipeline — which runs along the Gaviota Coast and up toward Kern County through Zaca’s property — violate the terms of an established easement agreement between the two parties. Zaca is calling for a new easement and financial compensation for lost property value produced by the pipeline’s “extreme negative stigma.”
Meeting the plaintiff’s demands would go against a $70 million class-action settlement agreement between Sable and different property owners along the pipeline, which resulted in new easements and financial compensation for them in May. In those easements, it was agreed upon that Sable would not construct a new pipeline, but rather repair the old one. Zaca wants the opposite.
“In order to avoid further damage to Zaca, Sable needs to either negotiate a new easement from Zaca and construct a new pipeline on Zaca’s property … or abandon the pipeline and remove the pipeline from Zaca’s property entirely, and reroute the pipeline through other properties in the area,” the suit reads.
Zaca Preserve didn’t join the class-action suit because “the relief provided … is not remotely adequate to satisfy Zaca’s losses,” according to the suit. The current lawsuit estimates the value of the Zaca Preserve to be more than $40 million, and asserts that some of the seven 20-acre lots will be “virtually unsalable” after disclosing the pipeline’s history to potential buyers. The only other option, the suit says, is for Sable to acquire Zaca’s property at that market rate.
Representatives from Sable did not respond to requests for comment. Todd Amspoker, the attorney representing Zaca Preserve with Santa Barbara law firm Price, Postel & Parma LLP, declined to comment on the case.
A case management conference is scheduled for January 31, 2025, in Santa Barbara County Superior Court.
