Tag: Water pollution

Tues 11/5: Help protect Ventura County’s Water! Urge the Board of Supervisors to extend the ban on new oil wells! Meeting today at 3:00 pm.

(Food & Water Watch) A U.S. Geological Survey report earlier this year revealed petroleum-related gases near flammable levels in Oxnard’s and Camarillo’s water supply.   The people living closest to the current and proposed oil wells are already overburdened with the highest rates of pollution in all of California, according to the California EPA.

Ventura County Supervisors did the right thing and voted for a temporary ban on new oil and gas wells near drinkable water. So far there haven’t been any new findings, but the temporary ban expires soon. And there are potential fossil fuel projects in the pipeline for Ventura County, so the industry isn’t going to give up easily.

Action #1 – Go to the meeting, speak out and/or write a comment card.

Ventura County Supervisors are scheduled to vote on whether to extend the ban for a year, today, November 5th at 3:00 p.m.

Despite Big Oil’s efforts and millions of dollars spent, people like you have spoken out and Ventura County supervisors have voted twice now to protect our water.

Action #2 – Whether or not you can make the meeting, send in a message. Food & Water Watch has made it easy.

Tell the Ventura County Supervisors to extend Ventura’s oil and gas moratorium to protect our drinking water! Write a comment here!

Continue reading “Tues 11/5: Help protect Ventura County’s Water! Urge the Board of Supervisors to extend the ban on new oil wells! Meeting today at 3:00 pm.” →

Fri 9/13: Carbajal’s anti-drilling bill passes the House. Join in to celebrate today and call your senators!

Action #1 – Congratulate Rep. Salud Carbajal for House passage of his bill banning off-shoring drilling!

All Santa Barbara Indivisibles and local activists are encouraged to attend Rep. Salud Carbajal’s press conference Friday September 13, to celebrate House passage of the “Coastal and Marine Economies Protection Act” (H.R. 1941). This bill bans future offshore oil and gas leasing off the U.S. coasts, and includes Carbajal’s “California Clean Coast Act” (H.R. 279) within it, which permanently prohibit oil and gas leasing off the coast of the State of California.

WHO:

  • Rep. Salud Carbajal, CA-24
  • Linda Krop, Chief Counsel, Environmental Defense Center
  • Michael Lyons, President, Get Oil Out
  • Dennis Allen, Chairman, Allen Construction
  • Ben Pitterle, Science & Policy Director, Santa Barbara Channelkeeper
  • Corley Kenna, Director, Global Communications and Public Relations, Patagonia
  • Sigrid Wright, CEO, Community Environmental Council

WHEN: Friday, September 13, 12:00 – 12:45 p.m. PDT
WHERE: Shoreline Park, East Parking Lot (closest to the pier), Santa Barbara, CA 93109

OR  thank him here: Rep. Salud Carbajal (CA-24): email.  DC (202) 225-3601, SB (805) 730-1710 SLO (805) 546-8348

The passage of this bill is crucial for Central Coast communities who have seen the devastation of the 1969 Santa Barbara and 2015 Plains All American Pipeline oil spills, and whose economies are directly tied to clean coasts and healthy ecosystems.
(Who cosponsored this? Check here – Julia Brownley and Katie Hill were cosponsors!)

Action #2 – Ask our legislators to get this passed in the Senate!

Continue reading “Fri 9/13: Carbajal’s anti-drilling bill passes the House. Join in to celebrate today and call your senators!” →

Mon 9/9: One-day notice! Join in to protect your community from oil industry pollution. County Supervisors Meeting Tuesday 9/10.

Actions – Write your supervisors and come to the meeting! 

“Hi indivisible and friends!
Los Padres National Forest is threatened by dangerously under-regulated oil development in Ventura County. We have a rare chance to change that.
On Tuesday, September 10, the Board of Supervisors will consider updating oil permitting to incorporate modern standards that better protect the health and safety of our communities and our environment. The proposed amendments would increase transparency, oversight, and public participation by ensuring that there is an environmental review, public notice, and a hearing before any new oil wells are drilled.

Thur 6/6: Do an “Interpretative” dance with the EPA – Write a comment to stop a dirty loophole in the Clean Water Rule. Deadline, Friday, 6/7.

How does a river catch on fire…13 times? Ohio’s Cuyahoga River caught fire because flammable petroleum products were being dumped directly into it, along with contaminated seepage from groundwater. Images like these from 1962 inspired the creation of the Environmental Protection Act (EPA) and the Clean Water Act (CWA).

Action – Write a comment on why Andrew is wrong before 11:59 pm EST Friday 6/7!

Hey, remember this guy? Andrew Wheeler, fossil fuel lobbyist, Washington Coal Club VP and putative Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)? An earlier public notice period alerted him to Big Ag and Industry’s annoyance with requirements to get NPDES (National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System) permits. And they didn’t think they should have to for releasing hazardous waste to groundwater systems with direct hydrologic connections to potable surface water. So Andrew issued an INTERPRETATIVE STATEMENT – the EPA and the Clean Water Act (CWA) would no longer protect the public from releases of pollutants from a “point source” to groundwater, regardless of the risks posed by hydrologic connections to potable surface water. If this rule change goes through, it’s another win for big agricultural, industrial and commerical polluters. Significant sources of water pollution, like agricultural storm water discharges and return flow from irrigated agriculture are already excluded the EPA’s charge. Now, this proposed regulatory loophole will allow polluters to avoid CWA liability by encouraging them to dispose of their problem wastes directly into local groundwater supplies, even when they know it flows into navigable, potable water. Already, a fifth of the United States, over 63 million people, have been exposed to potentially unsafe water.

Stop this now! Take 5 minutes to read some facts we’ve gathered, get mad, and write a comment. It doesn’t have to be long or technical. Just original. Comment here.

image.png Continue reading “Thur 6/6: Do an “Interpretative” dance with the EPA – Write a comment to stop a dirty loophole in the Clean Water Rule. Deadline, Friday, 6/7.” →

Mon 4/15: Those who would destroy our clean water protections are so close, they can taste it. So will we. “Waters of the U.S.”, Comment by tonight at 11:59 EST.

Action – The administration would like to redefine “water”. You know that this isn’t good. Save the current version of “Water of the United States” (WOTUS)

Clean water is not just a problem for Flint Michigan…
The Clean Water Act (CWA) has been regulating water in the United States since 1972 with bipartisan support under multiple administrations. In 2015, Obama’s EPA created the Waters of the United States (WOTUS), which added science-based protections and clarified terms, using the best input from reputable scientists, the Army Corps of Engineers, the public, agriculture, environmentalists, and more. Even with those protections in place, in any given year from 1982 to 2015, between 9 million and 45 million Americans got their drinking water from a source that was in violation of the Safe Drinking Water Act. Most at risk: people who live in rural, low-income areas.

Utilities, fossil fuel, mining, and farming interests are now expecting their return on investment in Trump, their lobbyists arguing that WOTUS defined federally regulated waters too broadly and that the scope should be limited per Supreme Court Justice (and noted NON-SCIENTIST) Scalia’s opinion to “only relatively permanent, standing or flowing bodies of water.” Then-EPA administrator Scott Pruitt issued a proposal in June 2017 to roll back the expanded definition, and our protections to having clean water. In January 2018, the EPA formally suspended the rule for two years, and in December, the administration unveiled a new plan to replace the rule. The deadline to make comments is TONIGHT (4/15), 11:59 pm EST.

  • Proposed rule here. Comment here.
  • Read other comments for inspiration here.

Comment examples: 

Continue reading “Mon 4/15: Those who would destroy our clean water protections are so close, they can taste it. So will we. “Waters of the U.S.”, Comment by tonight at 11:59 EST.” →

Mon – 1/28: Reminder – TODAY is the last day to write a comment on 750 new oil wells up the road.

Photo: from video on steam injection enhanced oil recovery.

Some may say “This isn’t our county…not our problem.”
That’s not how resistance works.
We are indivisibly linked, not just with our own town or county, but with the issues that threaten our neighbors, our state and our nation. Help make California inhospitable for the toxic oil drilling industry, not just in Cat Canyon, but everywhere. (See maps at the bottom for future installation fights. One is probably close to you or your water source.)

Three companies are proposing to drill over 750 new oil wells in the northern part of Santa Barbara County. The draft Enviromental Impact Report (EIR) for one of these companies – Aera – was released in December and is open for public comment until 5:00 this afternoon.

Action #1 –  Write a Public Comment TODAY, until 5:00 pm.

Anyone can submit a comment on the draft EIR directly to Kathryn Lehr: klehr@countyofsb.org  or through http://350sb.org/public-comment/. Note – all comments must be made to be referring to the draft EIR itself. Here are some links to help. Continue reading “Mon – 1/28: Reminder – TODAY is the last day to write a comment on 750 new oil wells up the road.” →

Mon – 1/14: 750 new oil wells in north SB county! Go to the hearing, write a comment, or do BOTH!

Photo: from video on steam injection enhanced oil recovery.

Some may say “This isn’t our county…not our problem.”
That’s not how resistance works.
We are indivisibly linked, not just with our own town or county, but with the issues that threaten our neighbors, our state and our nation. Help make California inhospitable for the toxic oil drilling industry, not just in Cat Canyon, but everywhere.

Three companies are proposing to drill over 750 new oil wells in the northern part of Santa Barbara County. The draft Enviromental Impact Report (EIR) for one of these companies – Aera – was released in December and is now open for public comment. There are two ways we can submit a comment:

Action #1 -Submit a comment at a public hearing on Jan. 17th.

On January 17 at 6PM, there will be a public hearing where anyone can come and submit a comment on the draft EIR. Note – all comments must be made to be referring to the draft EIR itself. Here are some links to help. Continue reading “Mon – 1/14: 750 new oil wells in north SB county! Go to the hearing, write a comment, or do BOTH!” →