By Andrew Christie, Chapter Director
So I was all set to write an extremely angry blog post, as the news washes up from Huntington Beach in heavy black waves, along with the pictures that never change: The destroyed habitat, the decimated wildlife, the skimmers and booms and cleaning stations that will never get it all.
Then I remembered: Didn’t Richard Charter say everything that needs to be said on this subject about five years ago, including the one thing that most needs to be said to residents of the Central Coast?
Why, yes he did. Mr. Charter, a Senior Fellow with the Ocean Foundation, got some space in the Santa Barbara Independent in 2016 to envision “Our Clean Coast Economy," probably because the Refugio oil spill was still fresh in everyone’s minds. It was – and is again -- necessary reading. You can click here for the whole thing, but here’s the gist:
“What’s the best way to protect the Central Coast’s vital marine environment and sustain our clean-coast economic sector and our fisheries?
“I had the privilege of being directly engaged in the bipartisan effort throughout the counties of Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo that led to the 1980 designation of our Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary. Overwhelming public support from local citizens and their elected officials provided the key ingredient leading to the well-documented economic and environmental benefits that the entire region presently experiences as a clear result of the sanctuary.
“Strong grassroots citizen support is once again the driving force behind the recent initiative to simply broaden the area enjoying such protections through the designation of the new Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary.
"During the 1970s we saw intense lobbying from the powerful petroleum industry to reopen our nearshore waters to vastly expanded offshore oil and gas leasing in the hope that the public had “forgotten” the devastating 1969 Santa Barbara blowout. The drilling targets coveted at that time included sensitive tracts now protected within the Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary. Conserving the area eventually brought permanent protection from oil impacts for fragile reefs, subsea canyons, and key fish habitat, guided by a citizen’s advisory council of local stakeholders.
“Today, as the fishing industry and the state continue to tally up the still-mounting economic damage from the 2015 Refugio pipeline spill, oil that came from wells sunk below our ocean, we have the next generation’s opportunity to secure a similar designation of the Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary. Such a move would enable the public to gain permanent protection from offshore oil and gas drilling and related pollution for more of our sensitive coastal waters, thus benefitting our fisheries and all other sustainable uses of the region. No other mechanism can provide similar benefits.
“The County of San Luis Obispo’s coastal plan says: “No permit, entitlement, lease, or other authorization of any kind within the County of San Luis Obispo which would authorize or allow the development, construction, installation, or expansion of any onshore support facility for offshore oil and gas activity shall be final unless such authorization is approved by a majority of the votes cast by a vote of the people of the County of San Luis Obispo in general or special election.” But this local ordinance applies only to land and will not and cannot preclude federal offshore leasing along the coast in the manner offered by the Chumash Sanctuary; drilling rigs could still go in and pipelines simply be routed to go ashore to connect with currently operating facilities in Santa Barbara County, thus avoiding any local control over our offshore waters. No similar local ordinance exists for Santa Barbara County’s coastal lands….
“We owe the continued health of our coastal economy to the sustainable future of our region and a factual discussion of the new marine sanctuary opportunity. See chumashsanctuary.com/, where you can add your voice to those asking that the designation process proceed."
And there you have it. As the same environmental emergency unfolds to the south of us once again -- as it did in 2015, and as it did in 1969 -- there but for fortune goes the Central Coast. And as it was in 2015, the proposed Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary is still sitting in the “Inventory of Successful Nominations” at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, deemed by NOAA to have met all the requisite criteria for a national marine sanctuary.
There it sits and there it waits, as a growing number of voices are added “to those asking that the designation process proceed.”