Greka Facts

Greka Energy began buying up oil leases in Santa Barbara County in 1999.  Greka fields were previously owned by a company called Saba, which also had a history of spills and negligence. Interestingly, Saba was also run by Greka’s CEO and Chairman, Randeep Grewall. Since commencing operation in 1999 Greka, a subsidiary of the China based corporation Green Dragon Energy, has gradually earned the reputation as Santa Barbara County’s most frequent hazardous material and air pollution violator. State and Federal environmental enforcement officials have also said that Greka is California’s number-one inland oil polluter.

Since beginning operations in Santa Barbara County, Greka has spilled well over a half a million gallons of oil and other hazardous materials, spilled kerosene distillates, polluted water ways with polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), leaked hydrogen sulfide, contaminated ground water, and leaked large clouds of combustible gas. These offenses have resulted in more than 740 citations from the Santa Barbara Air Pollution Control District, Santa Barbara County Fire, the Santa Barbara District Attorney, US EPA, the California Department of Fish and Game, and CalOSHA. The county hazmat team has responded to incidents at Greka facilities more than 400 times in the last nine years – on average this means that Greka has a hazardous material incident nearly once a week.

All of these violations have resulted in fines totaling more than $2,600,000. Unfortunately, rather than change their behavior, Greka has treated these fines as a cost of doing business and has made little effort to correct their negligent maintenance practices. The Greka situation came to Assemblymember Nava’s attention on December 7th  in which nearly 90,000 gallons of oil and produced water were spilled into a creek.

Greka Violations

Arranged by Agency or Department
The information presented here was gathered from various state and local government agencies. Some of the information may not be verified.

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
The US EPA has issued a total of 36 violations and collected $1,300,000 in penalties from Greka. The two most serious violations are briefly described below:

June 01, 2006: The U.S. EPA fined Greka Integrated Inc. of Santa Maria, California $127,500 for unauthorized disposal of oil refinery wastewater into the facility’s injection wells, in violation of the federal Safe Drinking Water Act.

June 15, 2006: Santa Maria Refining Co., a subsidiary of Greka Energy was sentenced to three years probation and ordered to pay a $1,000,000 criminal penalty for disposing of contaminated wastewater into wells that were not permitted for that use, posing a risk to groundwater supplies. The company was ordered to apply $500,000 of the $1 million penalty towards the Los Padres National Forest Restoration Project. The company pleaded guilty on April 12, 2007, and was sentenced in U.S. District Court, Central District of California.
For more information on the U.S. EPA’s responses to Greka incidents click here.

Occupational Health and Safety Administration
On June 28, 2002: Cal OSHA fined Greka $7,425 for not having a satisfactory respiratory protection program, not evaluating the respirators, not making sure respirators fit properly, not having an emergency communication or action plan, and not testing the respirators with vapors and gases.

California Department of Fish and Game Office of Spill Prevention and Response
The California Department of Fish and Game (DFG) has seven open cases that are related to violations resulting from over 203 incidents of pollution. To date DFG has fined Greka $547,691.

Santa Barbara Air Pollution Control District
Since 1999 Greka has been issued 298 air quality violation notices. These violations have resulted in a total of $545,691 in penalties.

Santa BarbaraCounty Fire Department
The fire department has responded to 400 incidents and issued 95 notices of violation that totaled $199,366 in penalties since Greka has been in business since 1999.

Santa Barbara County District Attorney
In 2004, Greka was cited for 104 violations by the Santa Barbara County District Attorney including trying to change the identification tags on old engines to extend their life and thwarting investigation attempts. One employee was charged with and given a misdemeanor for perjury. In December 2006 the case was dismissed and Greka settled with the county for $675,000. 

Ventura County Air Pollution Control District
Since 2005 Greka’s Rincon Island Facility has been fined $85,500 for several violations that involved exceeding the leak rate in their oil field components, problems with their vapor recovery system, and for violating their probation.