Santa Maria Cemetery: Crews discover oil well abandoned in 1929

SANTA MARIA, Calif. - Crew workers found oil particles while getting ready to build a maintenance facility at the Santa Maria Cemetery.

"There’s no records of it with the city or the state but again with theResearch we found out it was an oil well abandoned in 1929," said Ron Jacobs with the Santa Maria Cemetery District.

"Historically the area was developed for oil and gas … those in the Orcutt area will remember the Old Maud … it gushed for weeks," said Mark van de Kamp with the City of Santa Maria.

"I’m not surprised because Coastal Hills Federal Credit union was put on hold for about six months because they found oil on that location as well. This entire valley is covered with oil so there’s oil wells people just don’t know about," said Jacobs.

City managers are in the process of making sure the area is cleaned up so crews can return to their construction project.

"The old well heads are around … they’ve been capped. Historical it’s good to keep the perspective that there were thousands of oil wells around the valley," said van de Kamp.

Despite the discover of the oil well, the cemetery district is expected to complete its work by this fall.