By Gary Meyer

The company which owns and operates the ruptured pipeline that spilled crude oil near Santa Barbara on May 19 also owns and operates an oil pumping station in Lebec and a pipeline that runs across Wind Wolves Preserve. The line at the pump station on Digier Road in Lebec comes from Taft, continues through Lebec to join the Old Ridge Route, then runs along Interstate 5 near Pyramid Lake.

The Plains All American (PAA) pipeline rupture in Santa Barbara County spilled over 100,000 gallons of crude oil. An estimated 20,000 gallons reached the ocean.

Rick Throckmorton of Pine Mountain, who owns Aspen Helicopters in Oxnard, flew officials over the spill area to assess the damage. On May 21 the spill was declared a state emergency by Governor Edmund G. Brown, Jr.

Throckmorton sent photos and video clips to The Mountain Enterprise to share with…(please see below to view full stories and photographs)

Photo captions:

Above: The Plains West Coast Pipeline facility and the sign at the entrance in Lebec on Digier Road; Right: The view from Rick Throckmorton’s helicopter as crews work to clean up the oil spill near Santa Barbara; thousands of pelicans, other sea birds, seals, sea lions and otters have been caught in the oil. A larger spill occurred at Pyramid Lake in 2005.

Are there adequate shutdown and isolation mechanisms in our local oil pipelines in case of an earthquake? If not, what impact would a major spill have on local water and habitats?

Pilot Rick Throckmorton

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This is part of the June 5, 2015 online edition of The Mountain Enterprise.

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