Greka hires president, offers reward for unknown saboteur, spills oil

 

The same day it released a statement that declared its dedication to cleaning up its act, Greka Oil and Gas Inc. spilled an estimated 8,400 gallons of crude oil and produced water Jan. 29, shutting down portions of Palmer Road between Highway 101 and Dominion.

The spill entered the creek bed and flowed three-quarters of a mile downstream, prompting the federal Environmental Protection Agency to issue an order Jan. 30 for Greka to immediately comply with the Federal Water Pollution Control Act or face daily fines of up to $32,500.

 

The spill entered the creek bed and flowed three-quarters of a mile downstream.

This is the second spill to occur at the Palmer Road location and is one of the four facilities currently under stop-work orders.

Fire officials said that Greka employees admitted that the spill has been going on for several hours before it was reported.

In a statement released Jan. 29, Greka contended that the spill was the result of “heavy rains the area has experienced over the past five days.”

The oil company also claimed that the source of the leak was a pond pipe that the company says it informed the fire department needed to be replaced, but said it was unable to do so under the current stop-work order. But amid the recent spills, Greka reiterates that it is taking proactive measures to prevent spills by appointing a president to head its Central Coast oil facilities, initiating Greka Green, an initiative that is designed to make Greka an environmental leader, and posting a $25,000 bounty for the capture of saboteurs it claims remain at large.

 

“At Greka we take seriously our responsibility to operate safe and secure facilities,” said new company president Andrew deVegvar according to a Jan. 25 press release.

“We understand that any event which impacts our facilities, whether caused by sabotage or something else, can have an affect on the environment, our business and our more than 200 employees and their families. I am making it my primary task to ensure that this company is doing everything it can to be as environmentally aware as possible and as good a corporate citizen as possible,” deVegvar was quoted by the press release as saying. “We are going to be a leader.”

 

The announcement of deVegvar’s appointment was made public Jan. 25, just one day following the oil company’s Jan. 24 leakage of crude oil, which spilled water and solvent at six different facilities. The spills took place on the Ucal lease on Dominion Road, the Bell lease on Palmer Road, the Davis lease on Zaca Station Road, the Fullerton lease on Cat Canyon Road, at the Greka Battles Tank Battery on Battles Road, and at the Bradley 3 Island facility on Telephone Road. In response to the spills, the county fire department has issued stop-work orders for all facilities related to the recent leakages.

“Some of the issues are small and some are bigger,” said fire department Public Information Officer Eli Iskow. “Cleanup is ongoing for all the issues we’re aware of; a lot of it is being overseen by Federal EPA and California Fish and Game.”

According to the Santa Barbara County Fire Department, all the facilities at the various locations have multiple problems and involve poor maintenance and failed equipment, including inoperable injection pumps, failed alarms, and tank over-flows.

 

Though the appointment of deVegvar was announced almost simultaneously with the Santa Barbara County Fire Department’s reports of the Jan. 24 spills, Greka spokesperson Robert Emmers maintains that Greka’s announcement was coincidental.

“My understanding is that the organization up there felt like it needed someone in place that could really concentrate on operational details and who could really spearhead these enhancements they want to make,” he said.

In a Jan. 25 statement, Emmers added that the latest spills and contaminant incidences “… were all minor, rain-related incidents and Greka responded immediately to all facilities involved …The incidents at Davis and Bell did not involve leaks, but rather residual oil from the Dec. 7 and Jan. 5 spill cleanup operations. … Greka crews are working at all the locations to comply with the Santa Barbara County Fire Department’s requirements for putting the facilities back into service.”

 

Even though Iskow admits that rain played a factor in the latest Greka violations, he is adamant the recent violations would not have occurred if Greka kept its facilities up to standards.

“We could have anticipated, based on prior history, that there would be incidents of some kind, just because that’s what the history has been,” Iskow said, “and indeed the rain did cause some extra problems, but it’s not because of anything except the ongoing poor condition of their equipment. You can’t blame the rain on the poor equipment and containments.

“I don’t believe we’ve had any other issues with any other operators during the rains, outside of the small one we had last week at Popco.”

 

 Greka also announced that it will immediately initiate measures to include adding block walls to earthen berms at containment areas near creeks, increase security at Greka facilities by contracting a third-party security firm; evaluate permitted out-of-service equipment and offer a $25,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person or persons involved in what they claim to be sabotage of the company’s Bell-Palmer and Zaca-Davis facilities. 

Emmers said that Tom Parker, the former FBI agent that Greka hired to investigate its claims of sabotage, has not released any new findings of sabotage outside of the Dec. 7 and Jan. 5 spills, in which the company cites sabotage.