Piru, Calif. – In response to appeals by conservation groups, Ventura County officials announced yesterday that an oil company has cancelled its controversial proposal to drill two exploratory wells and reopen an abandoned oil field near the town of Piru, the Los Padres National Forest, and the Hopper Mountain National Wildlife Refuge.
Modelo Canyon
The Ventura County Planning Commission approved the wells in September. Following that approval, three nonprofit organizations – Los Padres ForestWatch, the Center for Biological Diversity, and Citizens for Responsible Oil and Gas – filed an appeal of the decision. The groups argued that the commissioners erred by approving the wells without first preparing a full Environmental Impact Report to evaluate the impacts of the oil operations on endangered California condors, water pollution, earthquake risk, and truck traffic and health impacts to residents of the nearby rural community of Piru.
Los Padres ForestWatch first learned of the company’s plans to reopen the abandoned oil field in 2013. We reviewed the detailed project proposal and preliminary environmental studies, attended and provided testimony at two separate hearings, submitted hundreds of pages of detailed comments and recommendations, and filed two formal appeals, all urging the company and the County to prepare a full Environmental Impact Report due to the significant environmental impacts that the drilling would cause.
The most recent appeal was filed with the Ventura County Board of Supervisors in October. The appeal was originally scheduled before the Ventura County Board of Supervisors on December 16, but that hearing was indefinitely postponed. Days later, the oil company – DCOR LLC – notified county officials that it was withdrawing its application for the two test wells. The County announced the company’s cancellation yesterday, stating:
The DCOR Oil and Gas Project (PL13-0046) application has been withdrawn by the applicant and is no longer under consideration by the County of Ventura. Thus, no appeal hearing before the Board of Supervisors will be held. The fees filed with the Appeal of the Planning Commission’s decision will be refunded.
“We’re pleased that DCOR and County planners finally realized the inappropriateness of drilling for oil in this remote canyon adjacent to the national forest,” said ForestWatch executive director Jeff Kuyper. “ForestWatch is determined to work even harder in the new year to protect our forest and surrounding communities from runaway oil development.”
Two other appeals of oil wells in the area are still pending. In August, ForestWatch appealed two oil wells in the Hopper Oil Field just west of here, and in October, ForestWatch appealed five additional wells in the Temescal Oil Field to the north. All seven wells were approved without any environmental documentation, and without any prior notice or public hearing. The wells are all within close proximity to the national forest, and in areas frequented by endangered California condors. The County has not yet set a date for these hearings.
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