LAND AND SEA

The draft Environmental Impact Report for the
Tranquillion Ridge oil and gas development
project – released this week – validates opponents’
longtime concerns by identifying several “significant and
unavoidable” impacts. According to the document, the plan, which
calls for the slant drilling of 22 to 30 new oil and gas wells in
the waters off Vandenberg Air Force Base, would not only greatly
increase the risk of oil spills in the immediate region, but would
also extend the leases of Platform Irene by 30 years and the Point
Pedernales facility by 15 years, thereby increasing the chance of
spillage at those facilities as well. Additionally, the document
identified marine life, ocean water quality, commercial and
recreational fishing, onshore water resources, and terrestrial and
freshwater biology as areas that would be endangered by the
project.

If you have driven to Santa Barbara from the south via Highway
101 or gone to a Montecito beach in the past week, you’ve likely
seen one of the world’s largest and most impressive luxury
yachts happily anchored just off Miramar Beach. The
massive 230-foot vessel – owned by local philanthropists Peter and
Stephanie Sperling – sailed into local waters around sunset last
Friday and has been wowing beachgoers and commuters ever since.
Normally docked on the East Coast, the Reverie comes equipped with
a helipad, elevator, seven decks, wet bar, swimming pool, and just
about every other luxurious accoutrement imaginable.

Vandenberg Air Force Base successfully launched
a satellite-carrying rocket into the atmosphere last Saturday. The
satellite, made by Lockheed Martin, will be used for global
weather forecasting by the military.

An 18-year-old Santa Maria man has filed suit against Unocal and
a number of other oil companies alleging that he developed
cancer as a result of toxic pollution related to
oil drilling at the site of his home in the Santa
Maria Sunrise Hills. According to his attorney, plaintiff Scott
Chenoweth was unaware until recently that he has been living at the
site of a former oil field. The suit accuses the oil companies
involved in drilling at the location of failing to warn him – or
other residents of the Sunrise Hills developments – that living
there could expose them to dangerous carcinogens.