The ruling allows for more wells like these only feet away from Santa Paula Canyon Trail.
Last week, a Ventura County Superior Court judge denied our lawsuit challenging the expansion of oil drilling in Santa Paula Canyon, adjacent to the Los Padres National Forest.
The Ventura County Board of Supervisors narrowly approved the drilling plan in 2015, authorizing 19 new oil wells along a popular hiking trail in Santa Paula Canyon, a remote area between Ojai and Santa Paula. Three conservation groups – Los Padres ForestWatch, the Center for Biological Diversity, and Citizens for Responsible Oil & Gas – filed their lawsuit shortly thereafter, arguing that the County had relied on an outdated Environmental Impact Report from the 1970s, and had failed to implement several environmental protection measures outlined in that document.
In his ruling, Ventura County Superior Court Judge Kevin DeNoce deferred to the County of Ventura’s findings and conclusions in the matter, and upheld the County’s decision not to prepare an updated environmental study.
Following the ruling, ForestWatch issued an official statement: “We are disappointed in the court’s ruling. We are reviewing our legal options and remain firmly committed to doing everything we can to protect the things that make Santa Paula Canyon so special – its popular hiking trail through the national forest, its rare wildlife like condors and steelhead, and the clean water it provides for farms and homes downstream.”
The popular Santa Paula Canyon hiking trail serves as a gateway to waterfalls, swimming holes, backcountry campsites and endangered species habitat in the Los Padres National Forest. Despite objections from nearly 1,000 hikers and local residents and overwhelming expert scientific testimony, the Ventura County Board of Supervisors approved the oil wells on a 3-2 vote in 2015, relying in large part on an outdated environmental impact report prepared in 1978.
The groups have sixty days to file an appeal to the 2nd District Court of Appeal.
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