In a recent U.S. Geological Survey study, researchers found oil-related contamination in groundwater near cyclic-steaming injection activities in Ventura, Santa Barbara, and Kern counties, even at lower pressures, prompting Ventura County to place a moratorium on the practice altogether in Oxnard.
Given that Cat Canyon overlays the Santa Maria groundwater basin, a primary source of drinking water in our county, it is a poor place to conduct this dangerous experimentation at any pressure. Cyclic steaming not only causes oil spills, it generates far more climate-damaging greenhouse gas emissions than other forms of oil production.
We’re either going to be part of the solution to climate change by recognizing this, or we are the problem.