Last week the Planning Commission gave permission to an out-of-state company to drill an 11,000-foot well to explore for oil in the Cuyama Valley. The commission declined to require a full Environmental Impact Report, with an assessment of the consequences of greatly expanded drilling if the exploratory well finds oil. They also overlooked the drilling's use of almost 200,000 gallons of groundwater from the Cuyama Valley Groundwater Basin, which is already in critical overdraft. And, they ignored the potential for contaminating this precious aquifer.
The entire process has had two major flaws. First, the county’s Planning department typically acts as if it were a paid agent of the applicant seeking project approval. We county residents, however, pay the department to be a fair fact-finder with our interests foremost.
Second, overarching realities are typically ignored. In this instance, that clean water is a great deal more valuable than oil, and that the U.S. is already the world’s largest producer of petroleum and natural gas.