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Oil Spill at Greka Facility

Crude Flows into Nearby Creek; CHP Closes Road

Wednesday, December 22, 2010
By Tyler Hayden (Contact)

In keeping with its clean track record of dirty business, Greka Oil and Gas Corporation was responsible for yet another oil spill last night that sent at least one barrel of crude oozing into a nearby creek.

At around 7:15 last night, reported Santa Barbara County Fire Department spokesperson Capt. David Sadecki, fire crews and CHP personnel responded to the spill at Greka’s Bell lease at 6300 Palmer Road in Santa Maria. Greka employees, said Sadecki, noticed the spill — five barrels’ worth of oil, produced water, and rain water — make its way across Palmer Road, and notified the appropriate agencies as well as the Department of Fish and Game and Santa Barbara County’s Office of Emergency Services.

CHP officers closed Palmer Road while crews mopped up the mess with the help of vacuum trucks and a backhoe. Greka and County Fire crews also scrambled to build a dike to contain the spill.

The source of the spill, said Sadecki, seems to be isolated to a faulty pipe. The same property was the site of another incident on July 26 during which four gallons of oil and produced water leaked out of a tank. That incident was blamed on an injection pump malfunction.

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