Nine Years Since the Refugio Oil Spill

Nine years ago, a badly corroded pipeline near Refugio State Beach ruptured and spilled what experts now believe was more than 450,000 gallons of oil. Much of the oil poured into the ocean, creating the worst spill in the Santa Barbara area since the catastrophic 1969 event that helped spur the modern environmental movement.

I understand the immense power of oil spills. My own life has been profoundly shaped by disasters like the Pipeline 901 spill, and I’m tired of watching marine life suffer.

In 2010, just days after my first time seeing a pod of dolphins in the Gulf of Mexico, my joy was suffocated beneath more than 200 million gallons of oil gushing into the Gulf from the BP Deepwater Horizon disaster. In those dark days, I couldn’t look away as the ocean became a toxic slurry of death. I felt compelled to shift my priorities and abandoned my childhood dream of becoming a marine mammal veterinarian so I could join the fight to stop offshore drilling.

The Pipeline 901 rupture brought those awful memories back. This spill killed and injured brown pelicans, California sea lions, dolphins, and fish, among many other animals. Beaches and fisheries shut down as oil blanketed the coast.

The spill also shut down seven offshore oil and gas platforms that the pipeline serviced — all but three of which are now slated for decommissioning.

But the danger hasn’t passed.

Efforts are underway to restart the aging and corroded oil infrastructure, despite fierce opposition from landowners, Chumash people, and environmental groups. The Pipeline 901 spill happened almost a decade ago, but many of us remember it as though it was yesterday and want to make sure nothing like it ever happens again.

Unfortunately, oil spills keep happening. In October 2021 I took a hiatus from work to decompress and enjoy the sea and my passion for diving. But when I surfaced from one of my dives in San Diego surrounded by floating tar, a few weeks after the 2021 San Pedro pipeline spill in Huntington Beach, it was a harsh reminder that the ocean isn’t safe until offshore drilling stops and all platforms are decommissioned.

We simply can’t count on industry to prevent another oil disaster, so we need more help from government agencies, lawmakers, and the public.

Recently a company called Sable borrowed money from Exxon and purchased the entire pipeline system, the three offshore oil-drilling platforms, and an onshore processing plant. Now it’s trying every possible avenue to restart operations.

Transfers of ownership are an oil-industry shell game to avoid paying the true costs of cleanup. Often, at the end of an oilfield’s life, the big companies sell their assets to an underfunded entity that then goes bankrupt, abdicating cleanup responsibility. At a time of record-breaking industry profits and a desperate need to decarbonize, there’s no excuse for oil companies to avoid cleaning up their mess.

Every government agency should be skeptical of Sable’s recent efforts.

The state pipeline regulator, Cal Fire, should not allow the onshore Pipeline 901 to restart, especially since the agency would need to grant a waiver allowing Sable to proceed without the best possible oil-spill prevention technologies. The State Lands Commission should not renew or extend any leases for pipelines in state waters due to the significant risk of another subsea pipeline spill.

The Santa Barbara Air Pollution Control District must not renew air-pollution permits (currently open for public comment) for these shuttered operations with outdated, inadequate air-pollution controls. Before shutting down, these facilities were the largest source of greenhouse gases in Santa Barbara County and a major source of several serious air pollutants.

The federal government should stop extending the offshore oil leases in federal waters that would have expired years ago. And federal, state. and local regulators should absolutely not allow Exxon to transfer assets to Sable without requiring financial assurances for all cleanup obligations and ensuring coverage for a worst-case scenario oil spill.

Offshore drilling has to end, and governments have to stop granting permission to pollute. The risk of devastating oil spills and the cost of cleanup are too high.

As we enjoy our beautiful beaches and ocean this summer, let’s not forget the seasons when we had to stay away, the precious wildlife we lost, or the dirty industry that caused it.

Brady Bradshaw is a senior oceans campaigner at the Center for Biological Diversity.