2/14/12
GOLETA - The Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors is expected to approve the use of a new oil pipeline Tuesday that would end oil barging in California.
The new six inch underground pipeline spans eight and a half miles from the Ellwood Onshore Facility, that's near the Bacara Resort & Spa in Goleta, and runs north along portions of highway 101 and Calle Real to the Plains Pipeline system in Gaviota.
To put that into perspective, that would be about one hundred and fifty football fields.
Talks of a pipeline have been in the works for about fifteen years. A spokesperson for Venoco, the company that will be running the pipeline, says it would be environmentally superior.
County officials believe that transport by pipeline would reduce air emissions significantly.
Prior to the new pipeline construction the crude would move via pipeline from platform holly to the Ellwood Marine Terminal where it would be picked up by barge and then transported to Southern California for refining.
"Ultimately what will happen is a safer more efficient transport of crude oil. The barging operation off the coast of Goleta is really the last barging operation in California for transporting crude. Pipeline transport is far more efficient, far more safe and it's a better option," says Lisa Rivas, spokesperson for Venoco.
Approval means the county would grant a twenty year term to the Ellwood Pipeline Project and Rivas says the line has already been inspected and tested, so it's ready to go.
Within six months of the new pipeline being operational Venoco will begin decommissioning and cleaning up the Marine Terminal.
