Santa Barbara Channelkeeper works to protect and restore the Santa Barbara Channel and the creeks, wetlands, rivers, and beaches that flow into it, but our impact is greater when you lend your voice to the cause. Your participation makes a difference!
Here’s how you can help.
Urge Secretary Wade Crowfoot to Help Protect our Coast from Another Oil Spill
Nine years ago, a corroded pipeline on the Gaviota Coast ruptured, spewing more than 120,000 gallons of crude oil near Refugio State Beach. It caused one of the largest oil spills in California’s history, resulting in $750 million in damage to our coastal environment, local fisheries, and ocean-dependent businesses, in addition to the deaths of more than 775 marine mammals and birds.
A Texas-based oil company, Sable Offshore, is currently attempting to restart offshore oil production using the same pipeline, along with three offshore platforms called the Santa Ynez Unit and two onshore processing facilities on the Gaviota Coast. They have promised their shareholders that production will begin by the end of the year.
Channelkeeper has joined the Environmental Defense Center and many other organizations in opposing the restart of oil production from the Santa Ynez Unit and conveyance through the corroded pipeline that damaged our coast in 2015.
There are several agencies who will make decisions that will affect if and when Sable Offshore can restart production. However, the California State Fire Marshal is the only agency with confirmed authority to approve the restart. It is considering a request from Sable to issue a waiver of federal pipeline safety requirements. The Office of the Fire Marshal seems prepared to make its key decision without appropriate environmental review.
The State Fire Marshal’s office is part of the California Natural Resources Agency, which is led by Secretary Wade Crowfoot. Secretary Crowfoot can prohibit the Fire Marshal from issuing a waiver of safety requirements and he can also direct the Fire Marshal to require full environmental review prior to issuing permits to restart the pipeline.
Channelkeeper is inviting community members to write letters urging the Secretary of the California Natural Resources Agency, Wade Crowfoot, to help protect our coast.
Here’s how you can get involved:
- Email Secretary Wade Crowfoot
- Download a postcard to mail to Secretary Wade Crowfoot.
Key Talking Points:
- Ask Secretary Crowfoot to prohibit the California State Fire Marshal from issuing a waiver of pipeline safety requirements.
- Urge him to direct the Fire Marshal to require full environmental review prior to issuing permits to restart the pipeline.
- Explain why you feel that it is important to protect the Gaviota Coast from another oil spill.
Protect Our Waters – Set Common Sense Limits on Fertilizer Application for Farms
California leads the nation as a top agricultural producer – but the cost to our drinking water and environment is huge.
Over-application of fertilizer on farms is the biggest source of pollution to our groundwater supplies. Records show that the vast majority of farms egregiously over-apply fertilizer. According to the Central Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board ("Regional Board"), over half the nitrogen applied as fertilizer ends up as harmful pollution to the environment. Currently, farms discharge nitrogen at levels ten times higher than levels that are safe for drinking water and protective of the environment. The Regional Board has issued findings that “groundwater nitrate (fertilizer) contamination is widespread and severe, and degradation is increasing in many areas.” Nitrates leaching from fields into aquifers have left over 100,000 square miles of groundwater contaminated with nitrates throughout California, resulting in toxic drinking water supplies.
Nitrogen pollution from fertilizers is also harmful to ecosystems. Nitrogen pollution in streams, wetlands, and the ocean can fuel toxic algal blooms, which can make swimming unsafe, poison marine life, and shut down entire fisheries.
To address this detrimental overuse of fertilizers on farms, the Regional Board is proposing to set new limits for fertilizer application. These new limits would require farmers to apply only as much fertilizer as their crops actually need.
To support clean water, and to help tackle the State's biggest water pollution problem, please sign our petition to support fertilizer application limits for farms.
Use the form below to send the following message directly to decision makers:
To: Central Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board
From: [Your Name]
Dear Central Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board,
I support responsible agriculture AND clean water. We can achieve both, but limits must be established to prevent farms from over-applying fertilizer. Please protect our rivers, wetlands, ocean, and ground water supplies. Require farms to stop over-fertilizing and allow application of only as much fertilizer as crops reasonably need. Thank you for helping to address the State’s biggest water pollution problem.