In the wake of the oil spill into San Francisco Bay from a marine freighter, the City of Goleta sent a strongly worded letter urging the State Lands Commission to retire ASAP the Ellwood Marine Terminal and the old, single-hull barge, Jovalan, which lugs 50,000 barrels of crude at a time up and down the coast. Oil and gas exploration firm Venoco, Inc. hopes to upgrade rather than discontinue its operations at the terminal.
