[CINC] Oil seepage in the channel

[Ron Dreher]

Oil, gas seeps fouling Santa Barbara Channel : Panel of experts weighs in on
possible solutions 


JEREMY FOSTER, NEWS-PRESS STAFF WRITER 






Mike DeGruy speaks to the crowd at the Natural History Museum during
Saturday's public forum, "Oil in the Channel: Contentious Solutions."
ROBBY BARTHELMESS/NEWS-PRESS PHOTOS 


 


 

June 2, 2008 6:59 AM

When Dr. Bruce Luyendyk, professor of marine geophysics at UCSB, showed a
current aerial view of the Santa Barbara Channel at a recent town hall
meeting, the audience was surprised to see its beaches looking anything but
pristine.

Along the channel was contamination caused by seeps -- areas where oil and
gas deposits rise up through rock fractures beneath the seabed -- which
appeared as black oblong shapes in the coastal waters.

One of the consequences of seeps is an iridescent sheen on the water,
wherever a thin film of oil is present. Oil also washes up along the
shorelines as tar balls.

About 100 people showed up for the public forum "Oil in the Channel:
Contentious Solutions" on Saturday afternoon at the Santa Barbara Museum of
Natural History. Moderated by award-winning filmmaker Mike DeGruy, the
discussion was led by a panel of experts who weighed in on what -- if
anything -- should be done about the seeps. Opinions were diverse, and the
discussion spirited.

Dr. Luyendyk, one of a handful of researchers at UCSB studying Coal Oil
Point seeps, gave a brief presentation on the history of seeps and their
impact on the environment.

He traced the discovery of seeps, all the way back to 5000 B.C., to the
Chumash Indians, who used tar from seeps to waterproof canoes, baskets and
water bottles, and to make tools and jewelry. In 1792, British explorer
George Vancouver was one of the first to log oil slicks in the Santa Barbara
Channel. His and other explorers' discoveries led to the first offshore oil
production in the U.S., along the coastline of Summerland, in 1896.

In 1941, oil seeps were first documented in Coal Oil Point. Soon after,
studies of these fissures in the ocean floor began rolling out of academia.









What scientists have learned since, Dr. Luyendyk said, is that seeps -- not
offshore oil spills -- are responsible for most of the oil mucking up the
beaches along the Santa Barbara Channel.

For example, he added, seeps off Coal Oil Point near UCSB put an average of
4,200 gallons of oil into the ocean every day.

To put that number in perspective, Dr. Luyendyk noted that in a span of
"five or six years" the amount of oil that comes out of these seeps equals
"an Exxon Valdez oil tanker spill," the disaster that dumped 10.8 million
gallons of oil into the Gulf of Alaska in 1989.

And oil is not the only thing seeping from the seabed. Natural gas bubbles
up from the same fissures -- approximately 100,000 cubic meters per day.

"That translates into about 3 million cubic feet a day," Dr. Luyendyk said.
"Your typical household uses 250 cubic feet of gas a day."

Bruce Allen, a physicist, was on hand representing a local group called SOS
(Stop Oil Seeps) California, whose chief concern is the seepage from the
ocean floor and the pollution it creates in the environment.

For an environmental group, his organization advocates an unorthodox way to
deal with the seeps.

The orthodox way, some would say, is getting oil rigs out of the ocean.

"There is significant evidence oil extraction can reduce oil seepage," he
said, referring to a 1999 UCSB study that found links between offshore oil
production and decreased seepage.

Dr. Allen alluded to research suggesting that offshore oil spills are
responsible for less contamination than natural oil seepage, and encouraged
people to be more open-minded to the idea of extracting oil from the ocean
as part of an effort to reduce oil contamination of the environment.

"The public is unaware of the magnitude of natural seep pollution," he said.
"They don't garner the same attention major oil spills do 0xc9 and that's
something we want to educate the public about.

"There's a potential synergy we can take advantage of. We can reduce
dependence on foreign oil, reduce tanker traffic, expand on alternative
energy and clean up the environment."

Expanding oil production through offshore drilling, he said, would generate
$1.6 billion a year for California, and $330 million a year for Santa
Barbara County alone.

"In three and a half years we could afford to build a solar thermal farm and
provide electricity for every resident in the county of Santa Barbara," he
said, "and to provide (every resident) in four years a $10,000 credit to buy
a hybrid vehicle."

Michael Chiacos, energy program senior associate for the Santa Barbara-based
Community Environmental Council, brought a different perspective to the
discussion.

"We need not invest in energy of the past," he said, "which any oil
executive will tell you we're going to run out of. We need to stop hunting
and gathering for the little pockets of oil and gas and begin harvesting
wind, solar, geothermal energy."

Mr. Chiacos said mounting more oil platforms in the ocean is a
"supply-focused" strategy. And the supply of oil, he said, will eventually
run out. "We can't drill our way out of this problem," he insisted.

"I'd like to propose the main source of oil that we have in our county is
actually beneath our feet, not in the ground but in our conversation and
efficiency," Mr. Chiacos continued. "Europeans use half the petroleum that
Americans use on a regular basis. And we know what a great county Italy or
France is."

Characterizing his position on how to deal with the oil seeps as neutral,
Dr. John Day, a planner with the Santa Barbara County Energy Division,
warned of comparing natural oil seepage to oil spills.

"Oil seeps have relatively little impact, and spills can be absolutely
devastating," he said.

Dr. Day argued that natural oil and gas from seeps are released gradually,
allowing the currents and natural mixing to dilute their concentrations.

The impact of a major spill, however, can blanket the sea surface of a large
area with fresh oil, he noted. Unlike oil and gas seepages, large oil spills
kill large numbers of animals including sea birds and marine mammals, he
added.

Mr. Chiacos added: "A solar panel on your roof is not going to cause a great
deal of harm, whereas if you have a spill off the channel, as we saw in
1969, it can have devastating impacts on our environment."

Dr. Day also questioned the idea that increasing oil extraction is linked to
decreased seepage. He acknowledged that seepage rates near Platform Holly,
an offshore rig in the Santa Barbara Channel operated by Venoco Oil Company,
have declined significantly since 1973, but said supporting a hypothesis and
proving one are two different things.

"You can't say anywhere you drill you're going to reduce seepage," Dr. Day
said. "It depends on the location of area being drilled, how many faults it
has and how fractured it is. Just because in one case you have a reduction
in one area doesn't mean you can extrapolate from that a categorical rule,"
he said.

Despite those arguments, Dr. Allen said new technology was making oil
extraction environmentally safer. He also reiterated his point that the
money raised from oil extraction expansion would give us the financial means
to wean ourselves off fossil fuels and move toward Mr. Chiaco's society of
conservation and alternative energy.

Dr. Day remained skeptical.

"The Energy Division is concerned about doing adequate environmental review.
My analysis on oil seeps and oil spills is that there is that there is a
greater risk from oil spills," he said. "And it's up to the community to
decide whether that risk is worth it."

e-mail: jfoster at newspress.com

 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://www.rain.org/pipermail/channel_islands_naturalist_corps/attachments/20080603/3c11aa7a/attachment-0001.html>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 7519 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://www.rain.org/pipermail/channel_islands_naturalist_corps/attachments/20080603/3c11aa7a/attachment-0001.jpe>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: image/gif
Size: 49 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://www.rain.org/pipermail/channel_islands_naturalist_corps/attachments/20080603/3c11aa7a/attachment-0001.gif>