Greka to face possibility
of permanent shutdown
The
county has a number of oil operators that are in compliance with federal, state
and local regulations, according to 35th District Assemblyman Pedro Nava.
But
recent violations by Greka raise the question of
“when is enough, enough?” said Nava at a briefing Jan. 4 at which various
county and state agencies discussed the latest oil spills on Greka’s property near Santa Maria.
Greka is an energy company that operates various oil and gas
production, exploration and development facilities nationwide and
internationally. It is a subsidiary of Green Dragon, which operates methane
mines and gas and oil facilities in China. The company became private in 1999,
when it was purchased by Randeep S. Grewal.
Greka’s Santa Barbara County facility has spilled
more than 165,000 gallons of crude oil and has leaked explosive and flammable
natural gas in six different incidents dating back to Nov. 12, according to the
Santa Barbara County Fire Department.
In
addition to being issued stop-work orders from the county fire department for
the latest spills, the company has been cited 203 times by the Department of
Fish and Game, and has been cited 287 times by the Santa Barbara County Air
Pollution Control District, sentenced to three years
probation and ordered to pay nearly $2 million in fees and settlement costs for
various health and safety violations.
Though Greka must pay for any costs the county and state agencies
accrue enforcing regulations, the company’s numerous violations account for the
majority of responses by local and state agencies such as the fire department,
Fish and Game and the APCD.
“From a
compliance standpoint Greka is the most challenging
company that we regulate,” said Terry Dressler, director of the APCD.
“Greka operates 67 facilities located within 11 stationary
sources in the county. Since 1999 APCD personnel have conducted over 850
inspections of the facilities and have documented over 290 violations that
range from emissions violations to minor administration violations,” Dressler
said.
Despite
recent closures by the fire department and an accumulation of substantial fines
from local and state agencies, Greka’s ongoing
violations have continued unabated.
Greka’s most recent oil spill occurred at its Davis
Tank Battery facility, located at 5017 Zaca Station
Road, on Jan. 5. The fire department received a call around 7:30 a.m., and when
response teams arrived they found that the spill affected several hundred feet
of a creek.
It was
later determined that approximately 84,000 gallons of crude oil had spilled
into the creek. Investigators determined that the spill had been occurring for
more than 12 hours before it was reported by a local farmer. In response to the
spill, the fire department issued a stop-work order — the second within a
month.
Stop-work
orders and recent incidents notwithstanding, Greka
contends that it is doing its best, given the fact that it purchased aging
facilities nearly a decade ago.
“On
behalf of Mr. Grewal, I’m interested in hearing all
this,” said Robert M. Sanger, an attorney representing Greka
and a certified Criminal Law Specialist.
Greka is making very sincere efforts to comply and be preventative and
avoid these reactions to spills and everything else, he said.
“We have
a situation where Greka came here in 1999 with a
small operation and began to acquire these leases. An important thing to
understand is that these leases are all old leases. All the wells are old.
“Greka has not drilled a single new well. So they’ve taken
over existing infrastructure…They have discovered all sorts of things in taking
over these fields that were not known to them when they took them over,” Sanger
said.
“I know
that there’s been efforts. Greka
has increasingly been trying to cooperate more, more and more,” Sanger added.
“They’re paying for special training, they’ve got everybody up to date with
their cards and their [hazardous materials] outfits and a response team that’s
in place,” Sanger said.
“They’ve
made tremendous progress, and tremendous progress means that maybe at the
beginning they weren’t as good at it as they are now, but they’re getting a lot
better,” he said.
Scott Proskow, a production foreman at Greka,
agreed with Sanger, seconding Sanger’s claims that the company’s attempts to
correct violations.
“I have
seen a lot of improvements and changes in our regulatory — a big step forward
into correcting a lot of these problems,” he said. “Now, a lot of things I
heard are from the past. Now we are moving forward.”
Greka can face fines from the state Environmental Protection Agency,
Fish and Game, the fire department and APCD, which range from $10 for every
gallon of oil spilled to $100,000 per day for serious offenses in which public
health and welfare are at risk. The APCD can issue a cease and desist order through its board, and the fire department can
determine there is a public health risk and shut down Greka’s
facilities permanently.
Since the
majority of land on which Greka operates its
facilities is leased, the lessors could cancel their
leases, and the County of Santa Barbara also could suspend the company’s permit
to operate.
If all of
Greka’s facilities are permanently shut down, many
people could be out of jobs, since the company is one of the largest employers
in Santa Maria.
“We are
probably one of the largest employers to the Santa Maria Valley, and we are an
asset to that community as far as the economy, and personally it would be a big
blow to me and my fellow employees if there are too heavy of sanctions put on [Greka.] There is a huge human element that would be
affected,” Proskow said.
Greka could be facing some of these consequences, including a permanent
shutdown as early as Jan. 15, when the county will hold a two-hour hearing
about the recent spills.
“Since
this board agenda item has been written there has been another spill,” said 2nd
District Supervisor Janet Wolf.
The
county can take action at the Jan. 15 hearing and it should begin to explore
options that are available to do just that, she added.
As a
result of Nava’s Greka briefing Jan. 4, which more
than 40 Greka employees attended wearing green
jackets embroidered with the Greka company logo, the
future could hold new state legislation permitting increased enforcement
measures and better communication and reporting techniques among various
agencies that regulate such companies.
“ I think I can say without contradiction, ‘there isn’t a person up
here who wouldn’t enjoy never having to go out to Greka
again in response to a spill, a leak or to conduct an inspection.’ That would
make everybody’s 2008 a cause for celebration,” Nava said.
“We
understand that this was material that has been put in place many, many years
ago.
“Along
with that comes an obligation to make the appropriate investment so that
workers aren’t put at risk, and so that the environment is protected,” he said.
“Greka needs to do a much better job than it has been so far
or [it’s] going to see all of us again and again, and I bet [it] doesn’t want
that to happen,” Nava said.