Reports of oil releases fuel industry critics
Environmental justice advocates looking for evidence of oil spills potentially affecting local communities say they may have found recent examples of just that.
The Central California Environmental Justice Network points to at least three reported instances of crude or methane releases in different locations around Kern County since early February. Two of them — one in Fuller Acres, another in Bakersfield — are examples of why petroleum infrastructure “cannot be near our homes and medical facilities,” Associate Director Cesar Aguirre of the group’s Air and Climate Justice team said by email Thursday.
The third instance was a crude oil pipeline leak, discovered by a state inspector, that appears to have been stopped and addressed in the Midway-Sunset Oil Field near Taft.
Uncontrolled releases of oil and methane around Kern County have increased political pressure on the local oil industry in recent years. Although the recently reported leaks or spills appear to be far smaller than the incidents that have gained wide attention during the Newsom administration, the reports provide fodder for activists pushing for tougher state regulation of a sector fighting for its survival in California.
On Feb. 13, California Geologic Energy Management Division staff received a report from CCEJN about a small pool of oil at the base of a storage tank north of East Fairview Road just west of the East Side Canal. Agency representatives visiting the site nine days later noted about a foot of an unidentified, standing liquid.
Because the agency has deemed the tank’s owner, Sunray Petroleum Inc., to be non-responsive, CalGEM contacted a private cleanup crew about
placing a bid to drain and clean out the tank. A spokesman for the division said a contract for that work is still being finalized. He added a notice of violation has been issued to the company.
Aguirre said CCEJN discovered methane leaking, and dripping oil, about two weeks ago in and around the parking lot of the Kaiser Permanente facility along Discovery Plaza in west Bakersfield.
Representatives of CalGEM, the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District and Kern County Environmental Health said they had no records of the incident.
Early last month, a pipeline was found to have been leaking crude near Panama Lane and Buena Vista Road in southwest Bakersfield. A section of Panama had to be closed to traffic. Operations of nearby Buena Vista Elementary were unaffected.
The Sierra Club issued a statement about the release, saying it was a reminder that petroleum is “just one accident away from wreaking havoc on our soil, water and environment.”
“These risks only become more serious when our oil and gas pipelines are near homes and schools,” Sierra Club representative Mercedes Macias stated in a news release.
Records posted by the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services show a CalGEM official discovered on Feb. 26 that an unknown quantity of oil had leaked from a pipeline in the Jameson Trust Lease at Midway-Sunset. The inspector noted three clamps had been installed, suggesting the leak had stopped, “but they are not certain if it is stopped because it is submerged in oil.”
The release was listed as impacting only a dirt road in the oil field.
A spokeswoman for the air district said by email a gas leak violation was issued. When a representative of the agency returned March 1, she noted, the issue was found to have been resolved.