Oil Drilling in Arroyo Grande Oil Field Challenged

By Theresa-Marie Wilson ~

The Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) filed an appeal against the San Luis Obispo County Planning Commission’s recent approval of Freeport-McMoRan’s plan to drill dozens of new oil wells in the 1,480-acre Arroyo Grande Oil Field in the Price Canyon area northeast of Pismo Beach.

The county must protect people’s water supplies from oil industry pollution.

Maya Golden-Krasner

The appeal, filed with the county board of supervisors, says Freeport’s request for an extension on an expired, decade-old plan to drill 31 new wells and increase production from 5,000 to 10,000 barrels a day could threaten underground water supplies. There are at least 100 water-supply wells within a mile of the oilfield.

“County supervisors shouldn’t bend the rules to give this oil company special permission for dangerous drilling,” said CBD attorney Maya Golden-Krasner in a press statement. “It’s unsafe and irresponsible to renew the expired permit to drill these wells based on a cursory environmental review that’s 10 years old. The county must protect people’s water supplies from oil industry pollution.”

After two meetings and hours of debate, the planning commission agreed to amend Freeport McMoRan Oil & Gas’s conditional use permit (CUP) giving the company more time to drill its previously approved oil wells. The current phase was originally permitted in 2005.

At the Oct. 22 planning commission meeting Freeport McMoRan Oil & Gas Director of Government affairs John Martini said more time was needed due to outside circumstances.

“We were not able to complete the Phase IV project within the timeframe allotted by the original CUP,” Martini said “The discovery of the need for the division to work with the US Environmental Protection Agency to update certain boundaries that were originally established in 1983 put a stop in our ability to execute the remainder of Phase IV… powers beyond our control prevented us from being able to conclude the originally approved project.”

Currently, Freeport McMoRan Oil & Gas operates 238 active wells at the site, 8 are injector wells and 73 are extraction. The Center contends that although the planning commission’s Nov. 12 approval of Freeport’s drilling plan does require the company to install an unspecified number of sentry wells, and conduct water-well testing if requested by neighbors, that provision doesn’t specify who will select the testing company or how the locations of the sentry wells will be chosen.

“Sentry wells could show what chemicals have contaminated the groundwater, but they will not prevent pollution from occurring in the first place,” said Golden-Krasner adding that neighbors have expressed grave concerns about water contamination, and a hydrogeologist has told county planners that Freeport failed to provide data showing the water wells wouldn’t be at risk of oilfield pollution.

“Since the original permit for the 31 wells was approved in 2005, the oil industry has undergone major changes,” the press release stated.  “State oil regulators recently revealed that underground injection procedures like those planned in some of the new Arroyo Grande wells routinely fracture rock formations, creating underground pathways that can allow pollutants to reach water supplies.”

According to the Center, California’s Division of Oil, Gas and Geothermal Resources also recently released a self-audit showing a complete breakdown in the state’s regulation of oil industry injection wells. The audit found that state officials had allowed oil companies to drill wells into federally protected aquifers around the state, including in the Arroyo Grande field.

According to McKenzie, the next step is to “review the merits of the appeal” and then schedule it before the board of supervisors at an as of yet undetermined date.

The 31 wells are part of a larger Freeport expansion project. Phase V of the Freeport McMoRan Oil & Gas, which would expand the field size to include 350 new wells, would likely come before the planning commission sometime in 2016.

The Arroyo Grande Oil Field is a state-designated oil field in unincorporated San Luis Obispo County located on both sides of Price Canyon Road that according to unofficial historical records has been actively producing oil since 1906. The oil field is the third largest source of property tax revenue in the county.

Calls to the County Planning Commission were not returned before deadline.