S.B. or Kern County?

In the letter “ERG Is Risky Business,” the writer points out the all-too-real risk to groundwater and air of this insolvent, bankrupt oil company’s attempt to expand operations in Santa Barbara County. It is important to add that in an analysis of reports by Santa Barbara County, ERG has shown the most spills of any other company since 2010 — about 39,000 gallons.

As this is the first of three oil companies coming before our Planning Commission and Board of Supervisors with dangerous proposals that will affect our county’s agriculture, groundwater, pollution, human health, and biodiversity well into the future, the hearing on March 13 will set the tone for what is to come — whether we maintain Santa Barbara County as a place where we raise our children with clean air and water, where we cultivate agriculture and sportsmanship, and where we continue to draw visitors to our world-acclaimed beaches and wineries — or whether we become a Kern County of polluted soil and undrinkable water. The choice is ours.

It is imperative that citizens write to their supervisors and the Planning Commission and ask them to vote against these proposals. (dvillalo@countyofsb.org dwilliams@countyofsb.org, ghart@countyofsb.org, jhartmann@countyofsb.org, peter.adam@countyofsb.org, steve.lavagnino@countyofsb.org)