Orella Ranch, One Year After Refugio Oil Spill

NewsChannel 3 launched a week-long series of special reports Monday night marking the one year anniversary of the Refugio oil pipeline spill.

On May 19, 2015 nearly 143,000 thousand gallons of crude spewed from the Plains All American Pipeline, spattering our local shores with black goo and pushing gobs of tar and oil sheens as far south as the waters off Los Angeles.

One year later, the massive clean-up effort is complete, however, residual impacts and litigation are far from over. NewsChannel 3 takes viewers to the 290 acre parcel of pristine land along the Gaviota coast that makes up Orella Ranch.

“For us, it went on all the way from May 19 to August 27 because the major clean-up point was right in front of our ranch,” said Susie Tautrim.

This land came into Mark Tautrim’s family (Susie’s husband) 150 years ago, in 1866.

“Which was even before the train tracks were here,” says Susie.

Now the railroad, the highway and pipelines criss-cross the land. And like a marriage, the Tautrims have a bond of sorts — rooted in soil — with Plains All American Pipeline.

“They were in the same spot three years ago, 2013, and they did repairs within feet of the one they just repaired last week,” said Mark, showing us cell phone video of Plains All American crews on their ranch the first week of May of this year.

An easement in the 80s gives the oil company permission to come on the ranch to make repairs and check for so-called “anomalies.”

“An anomaly doesn’t mean that anything’s wrong,” said Mark. “But, there may be something wrong.”

Another thinning section of the pipeline was discovered and repaired the first week of this month. Mark shows us more photos of the crew digging out the pipe then coating it in a protective sleeve in hopes of keeping the oil contained.

“They’re up the coast now on my neighbor’s property,” said Mark. “I’ve heard there are six sections between Exxon and Gaviota that needed repairs.”

The Tautrim’s insist they’re not anti-oil but say one year after that massive spill in their own front yard, they’re seeing devastating impacts.

Susie shares the discovery of a dead calf, captured on her cell phone.

“On May 4 of 2016, another dead baby,” we hear Susie say. “Here’s the mama, bellowing up there. And there’s the buzzards.”

Susie said they’ve had three stillborn calves; a fourth died along with its mother hours after birth.

“We’ve had so much death in our cattle herd that I can’t help but connect it to the oil spill because it has never happened. It is not normal,” said Susie.

NewsChannel 3 asks, “No necropsies done?”

“Not by the time you get there because the buzzards come in,” said Susie. “But if it happens again, we will do it.”

The Tautrim’s said they’ve have had their own health issues as well.

“One of my real pet peeves about this oil spill is how our ranch fell through the cracks,” said Susie. “They evacuated Refugio, they evacuated El Capitan. No one ever came to talk to us. No one. No one from (Santa Barbara County) Public Health, no one from the pipeline company, no one ever came to measure our air and it was toxic. So, we felt, ‘Oh, we must be safe,'” said Susie. “Then it turned out we got very, very ill.”

Severe headaches, bronchitis and nausea were among some of their symptoms.

“I called as recently as this morning” said Susie. “And I’ve called before trying to get a list of the chemicals that we were exposed to. Nobody will tell me. Not Plains, not Exxon, not public health. It’s very strange and I would like to know.”

Now, one year after the oil spill, 30 contained oil trucks make round-trips by the ranch. Mark and Susie say that’s far fewer than the 200 that hauled out crude-contaminated soil each day after the spill, in open-bed trucks.

Still, pipeline crews make frequent trips up the hill for repairs to the mile-long stretch of pipeline that runs beneath Orella Ranch, in hopes of staving off another major disaster.

“What is the integrity of the whole pipe?” Mark asks. “Just don’t know. I don’t.”

NewsChannel 3 asks, “Think they know?”

“Well, I think they think they know,” Mark smiles. “I’m not sure.”

The Tautrims say they will file a claim, most likely later this year. In the meantime, they’re monitoring their health and the health of all the animals they tend to on Orella Ranch.