Carpinteria City Council Opposes Drilling and Fracking Adjacent to Forest

Carpinteria, Calif.—On Monday, October 28, the Carpinteria City Council unanimously approved and adopted a resolution opposing the Trump administration’s plan to open 122,000 acres to new oil drilling and fracking on federal public lands and mineral estate in Santa Barbara County.

Acting on a request at a September meeting from Los Padres ForestWatch and a Carpinteria resident, the council requested staff to prepare a measure for consideration that would counter the plan which includes lands in the Carpinteria Valley adjacent to Los Padres National Forest near Cate School and Gobernador Creek, which flows through the city to Carpinteria State Beach. 

Oil development at this location would jeopardize the health and safety of Carpinteria schoolchildren, threaten wildlife and ‘America’s Safest Beach,’ degrade the city’s air quality, and put Carpinteria’s ground water
at risk.

Rebecca August, Advocacy Director at Los Padres ForestWatch

The plan will also allow oil drilling and fracking on lands along a tributary to Lake Cachuma, an alternate source of the city’s drinking water.

The council decided the matter before a full chamber. Over one-hundred Carpinteria residents sent letters urging the council to support the resolution. No letters or comments were made in opposition. Carpinteria joins Santa Barbara County and the Cities of San Luis Obispo and Ojai in submitting opposing resolutions to the project docket. Earlier this month, the Governor took steps to oppose the plan with the signing of AB 342, a law that bars the construction of pipelines or other oil and gas infrastructure to be built on state property to serve federal oil leases.

Despite an outpouring of concern and condemnation across California, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) continues to allow oil drilling and fracking on most of the lands it administers in central California, even on the most sensitive lands. The drilling and fracking plan ends a 5-year moratorium on new oil and gas leasing on federal lands in California.  

Allowing these lands to be opened for oil development until 2030 is a risky bet. The current administration has prioritized oil development expansion on federal public lands. It’s critical that agencies use all available tools to protect community resources and public health as well as wildlife habitat.

Rebecca August, Advocacy Director at Los Padres ForestWatch