Sable Offshore’s construction work along Gaviota Coast stops after second Coastal Commission notice issued
SANTA BARBARA COUNTY, Calif. – Construction work on a pipeline along the Gaviota Coast appears to have stopped after the Sable Offshore company received a second notice from the California Coastal Commission informing them they didn't have the proper permits and they needed to cease and desist all work in the coastal zone.
On Friday, Your News Channel reported that construction work along Highway 101 on oil pipelines may not have been properly permitted, and on Monday more of the permit dispute has come to light. One of the pipelines in question is CA-324 (formerly Line 901), which ruptured in the 2015 Refugio oil spill.
On Sep. 27, the California Coastal Commission issued a Notice of Violation to Sable Offshore, a Houston-based company that purchased pipelines, offshore platforms, and the Las Flores Canyon production facility formerly owned by ExxonMobil earlier this year, for their work on pipelines without securing the proper permit.
The September Notice of Violation informed Sable Offshore that its work was within the Commission's Coastal Zone jurisdiction and offered that Sable Offshore could get after-the-fact authorization for the work, but that construction should stop immediately.
According to Coastal Commission officials, it was believed that Sable Offshore and its subsidiaries had stopped all work in the coastal zone by Wednesday, Oct. 1. The commission discovered Thursday that work was still being done in that area.
On Friday, a staff member from the Coastal Commission verified work still being done along Highway 101 and a Notice of Intent was sent to Sable Offshore informing the company that it needed to cease and desist all work in the Coastal Zone. Images shared with Your News Channel by a staff member of the Center for Biological Diversity showed excavators and work trucks on a Gaviota coast hillside Friday morning, within the Coastal Zone boundary.
"The Coastal Commission has notified Sable that their unauthorized work in the Coastal Zone is a violation of the Coastal Act and could be subject to monetary penalties and legal liability," said Lisa Haage, Chief of Enforcement for the California Coastal Commission. "The company [Sable Offshore] told us that they stopped all construction as of 2 p.m. on Friday. The Commission has requested that the company provide information on the full scope of the project, which will allow state regulatory agencies to better assess the proposal, including any impacts to natural and cultural resources."
Steve Rusch, Sable Offshore's Vice President of Environmental & Regulatory Affairs, issued a statement on Saturday, Oct. 5 detailing work that has been done on the pipelines in question since they were shut down following the Refugio Oil Spill in 2015.
"Pacific Pipeline Company (“PPC”), a wholly owned subsidiary of Sable Offshore Corp., and its predecessors have maintained a cathodic protection and pressure maintenance program on Line 324/325 (previously 901/903) since the pipeline was shut down in 2015. The line was evacuated, cleaned and preserved with inert nitrogen to maintain a corrosion-free state. In accordance with the 2020 Consent Decree — signed by federal agencies including the Department of Justice, the Pipeline Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, and the Environmental Protection Agency, as well as California state agencies, the Department of Fish & Wildlife, Department of Parks and Recreation, State Lands Commission, Office of State Fire Marshal, Regional Water Quality Control Board, and the Regents of the University of California — PPC undertook a comprehensive repair and maintenance program to restore the pipeline to “as-new” condition. Before initiating this program, PPC employed state-of-the-art pipeline integrity analysis equipment to assess the internal and external condition of the pipeline. The results of this assessment established the criteria for repairing the pipeline to meet the stringent requirements of the Consent Decree."
Rusch added, "The California Coastal Commission (“CCC”) has requested additional information from PPC concerning its work and PPC is now actively engaged with CCC staff to respond to those requests. Repair and maintenance activities that are exempt from Coastal Act permitting requirements have been conducted on the pipeline under the pipeline’s existing Coastal Development Permits for the last 35+ years, and PPC believes its recent work is within the scope of those historic activities."
In response to inquiries about the exact timeline of compliance, Rusch answered, "Sable Offshore Corp, was complying with a request from the CCC through the early afternoon of 10/4. We’ve moved crews and equipment to continue repairs and maintenance on the balance of the 124 mile pipeline outside of the coastal zone."
According to Securities and Exchange Commission filings, Sable informed investors that it plans to restart production on the Santa Ynez Unit before the end of the year.
The image below, an informational slide from an investor presentation by Sable Offshore courtesy of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, details the history of assets purchased by Sable Offshore along the Central Coast.
The California Coastal Commission was created through a voter-approved 1972 proposition and made into a permanent agency with broad regulatory authority by the 1976 California Coastal Act.
The Commission's jurisdiction is limited to the Coastal Zone, an area that extends three miles into the Ocean and about 1,000 yards from the average high tide line inland and shown in the image below, courtesy of the California Coastal Commission.
The image below shows a closer view of the Gaviota Coast with the extent of the inland Coastal Zone as the blue line and major roads, including Highway 101, shown in red.
