Crude Awakening: Santa Barbara oil spill a brief glimpse into SLO’s future?

Nurses, parents and other San Luis Obispo county residents will gather downtown Thursday evening before the weekly SLO Farmers’ Market to protest Tuesday’s oil spill at Refugio State Beach, 50 miles south of SLO. In light of this environmental catastrophe, they will also bring renewed emphasis to their pre-existing call for county officials to oppose the Phillips 66 Oil Train Project.

Current estimates put the Refugio State Beach spill—by Houston’s Plains All American Pipeline—at up to 105,000 gallons of crude, with around 21,000 gallons spilling into the ocean, covering 9 miles of coastline. For perspective, Phillips 66 has proposed adding five additional rail shipments a week of dirty tar sands crude oil through the center of San Luis Obispo County to Phillips’ Santa Maria refinery—on 80-car trains, carrying around 2.4 million gallons on each trip.

“The Refugio State Beach spill is a monumental environmental catastrophe for the central coast, with all the associated health risks,” says California Nurses Association Co-president and RN Zenei Cortez. “Nurses know firsthand that pollution manifests in illnesses for our patients, and we shudder to think that just one oil train tanker car carries 30,000 gallons. If the Phillips 66 rail yard is built, I fear for the health and safety of our patients and our communities. That’s why we must stop the oil trains from coming into this region."

    WHAT:         Protest Refugio Oil Spill; Stop Oil Trains

    WHEN:        Thursday, May 21
                        Rally at meeting point: 5:30-6 p.m.
                        Education/petition at Farmers' Market: 6-8 p.m.

    WHERE:       Meet across from Freemont Theater on Monterey near clock tower, then on to Farmers’ Market.

The city of San Luis Obispo last month became the first in the county to declare its opposition to the Phillips 66 project. Cities and school boards in blast zone communities north and south of the county have also sent in letters opposing Phillip 66’Oil Train Project.

“This is a tragic reminder of the price of dependency on fossil fuels,” says Andrew Christie, director of the Santa Lucia chapter of the Sierra Club. “As bad as the Refugio spill is, it’s horrifying to imagine the impact of a spill ten times this size from an oil train derailing on the coast route or next to one of the creeks that feeds into the ocean. And this is just one of the potential impacts of the proposed Phillips 66 crude-by-rail project, but it should be reason enough for the County to deny the project.”

There are 29 county schools and two hospitals, including the region’s trauma center - Sierra Vista Regional Medical Center - in the blast zone of the Phillips 66 project, which also runs adjacent to the Cal Poly campus. Worries about the project already ran deep, with four major train accidents and explosions already seen in the U.S. and Canada just in 2015. Refugio State Beach, and its miles of coastline covered in oil, adds another tragic, local example that pipeline—considered by many to be safer than oil tankers—can pose a danger.

“Listening to Cal Poly students' anguish over the Refugio spill is all the convincing I need: Cal Poly students aren't going to accept more spills like this or the risk that the Phillips 66 oil trains are posing,” said third year Cal Poly student Ande Fieber.

The Final Environmental Impact Report on the Phillips 66 project is expected soon. After the Planning Commission votes on the project, the appeal is voted on by the Board of Supervisors, followed by an appeal to the California Coastal Commission.