Dealing with Greka

Immediately following the December 7th spill at Greka’s Palmer Road facility Assemblymember Nava visited the site of the disaster to get a first hand look at the damage. Having witnessed the magnitude of the spill, Mr. Nava immediately wanted to learn more about how an accident like this could have been allowed to happen.

On January 4th, less than a month following the first spill, the Assemblyman held an informational briefing that included representative from the US Environmental Protection Agency, the California Department of Conservation, the California Department of Fish and Game, representatives from the County Fire Department, and representatives from the Santa Barbara County Administrators Office. The testimony and discussions that took place indicated to Mr. Nava that existing state laws and regulations regarding inland oil production were deficient. Greka had been taking advantage of the lack of state authority and had been treating fines as a cost of doing business in the state.

As a result of what he learned Assemblymember Nava authored legislation to rectify shortcomings in existing state regulations that have allowed operators like Greka to continually pollute. This legislation will not be fully implemented July of 2009, meanwhile Greka continues to pollute. As a result, Sierra Club California and Mr. Nava have urged Santa Barbara County officials to take stronger and more decisive action against Greka to prevent pollution that will continue to be a problem until his legislation is fully implemented.