One of the biggest issues for SBCAN right now is the prospect of more than 760 oil wells being drilled in Cat Canyon by three companies, all of them penetrating and putting at risk the Santa Maria Valley Groundwater Basin. They all propose to use risky thermal-drilling techniques that have high rates of well-casing failures, leading to contamination of groundwater. This aquifer provides drinking water for 200,000 people and irrigation for over 50,000 acres of farmland.  If approved, these three projects would triple the amount of on-shore oil production in our county. 

The first of the three proposals is ERG’s.  A Draft EIR is published and is available here: http://sbcountyplanning.org/energy/projects/WCC_DEIR.asp. (Our Firefox browser did not display content correctly. Safari worked fine. Perhaps other browsers will be fine also.) Comments are due by August 3, 2018.

The first of two public workshops, at which County staff will take comments about the adequacy of the DEIR, is being held Monday, June 25 at 6 PM at the Betteravia Government Center, 511 E. Lakeside Parkway, in Santa Maria. A second one is scheduled on July 17 at 3 PM in Santa Barbara.

Food & Water Watch has organized an informational meeting about these three proposed projects. The meeting is in Santa Barbara tomorrow (Sunday, June 24) at 3 PM.  SBCAN and other organizations are co-sponsoring. Here is the information: https://secure.foodandwaterwatch.org/act/stop-new-wells-santa-barbara-county?ms=dist_re_06212018_SB-public-forum&oms=dist_re_06212018_SB-public-forum 

Please help us oppose these dangerous proposals. Check out SBCAN’s maps showing the relationship of past, current, and proposed oil and gas wells to the Santa Maria Valley Groundwater Basin; find them at http://www.sbcan.org/issues_maps.