Touring oil-covered Refugio Beach last month — just a few days after the Plains All American Pipeline spewed more than 100,000 gallons of oil onto the pristine Gaviota Coast and into the Pacific Ocean one month ago today — I could not help but think back to a similar journey I took in 1969 with my young children to East Beach in Santa Barbara after the devastating spill from Union Oil’s Platform A.
The sights and smells from these spills were incredibly similar — the noxious odor of crude oil permeating the air, wildlife drenched with oil, workers in white jumpsuits scooping oil off the sand by hand, boats busy deploying booms in the water, and miles of previously pristine shoreline covered in thick black tar.
These sights and smells are not easily forgotten; they stay with you and are a constant reminder of the need to act. Since that 1969 spill, our state and community have demanded the highest environmental protection standards for all local industries, but especially for oil and gas development. It seems clear to me that Plains is not meeting these standards, and I am working with federal, state, and local officials to find answers to the many questions that remain and to enact safeguards to better protect our communities.