Santa Barbara County News

A U.S. judge on Wednesday refused to overturn a California county's decision to block Exxon Mobil Corp from using tanker trucks to ship crude oil from coastal facilities to inland refineries while a ruptured pipeline is fixed.U.S. District Judge Dolly Gee in Los Angeles denied Exxon's bid to reverse the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors' denial of a trucking permit in early 2022, saying the board's decision was substantially supported by evidence that transporting crude…

The International Maritime Organization (IMO) has adopted a U.S. proposal to increase protections for endangered blue, fin and humpback whales off the California coast. The proposal takes effect this summer and expands areas that vessels should avoid to give whales more space, and extends vessel traffic lanes west of, in and around NOAA’s Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary.The Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary Advisory Council's Marine Shipping Working Group originally recommended the modifications in 2015. NOAA partnered with the U.S.

Federal and local investigators on Sunday carried out search warrants involving the owners of a diving boat that caught fire off the California coast in the middle of the night last week, killing 34 people.Agents from the FBI, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, the U.S. Coast Guard and the Santa Barbara Sheriff's Office searched the offices and two additional vessels owned by Truth Aquatics of Santa Barbara, owner of the Conception, on which the deadly blaze occurred last Monday…

Divers have recovered the bodies of all but one of the 34 people killed when the scuba tour boat they were sleeping on off Santa Cruz Island, California, erupted into flames early this week, officials said.The charred wreckage of the Conception now rests 60 feet (18 m) below the surface. Divers were still actively searching for the remains of one person, said Amber Anderson of the Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Office.None of the victims has been officially identified yet.The…

None of a dive boat's 34 passengers survived a fast-moving fire that sunk it off California's Santa Cruz Island, officials said on Tuesday, as recovery workers prepared to try to retrieve 14 bodies still believed to be on the vessel or in the ocean.Emergency workers planned to use DNA analysis to identify the badly-burned remains of the 20 people so far removed from the 75-foot (23 m) Conception ship, which was lying upside down under more than 60 feet (18 meters) of water following…

Divers recovered the bodies of 20 of 34 people believed to have been killed after a fast-moving fire broke out aboard a dive boat off California's Santa Cruz Island, trapping the victims below deck, authorities said on Tuesday.Search and rescue efforts were called off and recovery moves were underway, the Santa Barbara County Sheriff and U.S. Coast Guard officials told a press conference.Authorities will use so-called rapid DNA technology to identify the bodies, 11 females and 9 males, authorities said.Other bodies were seen in the underwater wreckage. When water and weather conditions stabilize, crews will attempt to recover the remaining 14, authorities said.The 75-foot (23 m) Conception caught fire about 3:15 a.m. Monday and sank.

Divers searched for more bodies early on Tuesday around the wreck of a boat destroyed by a blaze off the coast of southern California, as authorities launched an investigation into one of the area's worst maritime disasters.Emergency crews found at least 25 bodies after the fire broke out before dawn on Monday, leaving nine people still missing, the Associated Press reported. The coastguard declined to confirm the figures."We are looking for bodies now," said Santa Barbara Fire Department spokeswoman Amber Anderson.Flames ripped through the scuba diving vessel Conception…

Eight people were confirmed dead from a predawn fire that sank a boat off a Southern California island and 26 others who were on the scuba diving vessel were missing, a local sheriff said.The fire broke out aboard the Conception, a 75-foot (23-metre) boat, at about 3:15 a.m. while it was moored just off the shore of Santa Cruz Island, the U.S. Coast Guard said in a statement.Passengers slept in the ship's lower quarters, officials said, while five crew members who were above deck on the bridge escaped.The Coast Guard searched the coastline of Santa Cruz Island for any other possible survivors but had not found anyone, officials said."This isn't a day that we wanted to wake up to for Labor Day and it's a very tragic event…

In the Santa Barbara County Flood Control and Water Conservation District, the Thomas Fire Debris Flow Incident Emergency Dredging Project in the Carpinteria Salt Marsh needed a special dredge to make it happen. DSC Dredge was there. Carpinteria is a small California town approximately 80 miles north of Los Angeles. The town sits right on the Pacific Ocean with mountains just behind it. Unfortunately, this past year has been very difficult for this region. Wild fires ravaged the mountains and left the hills completely void of vegetation. There are small drainage canals that drain off the mountains to the Pacific. All along the beach is a housing development called Sandy Land. These homes are under threat due to mud slides from the mountains.

Partners in an initiative to cut air pollution and protect whales have announced results from the 2017 program and publicly recognized the 11 shipping companies who participated, reducing speeds to 12 knots or less in two regions. For the first time the program included speed reduction zones in the San Francisco Bay Area in addition to the Santa Barbara Channel region. The voluntary incentive program started July 1 and ended November 15, 2017. Automatic Identification System (AIS) data for ship speeds in the program verified that more than 140 transits were successful in reducing speeds to 12 knots or less, and more than half of these were successful in achieving a bonus incentive for slowing to 10 knots or less.

California will block the transport of petroleum from new offshore oil rigs through its state, officials told Reuters, a move meant to hobble the Trump administration’s effort to vastly expand drilling in U.S. federal waters. California's threat to deny pipeline permits for transporting oil from new leases off the Pacific Coast is the latest step by states trying to halt the biggest proposed expansion in decades of federal oil and gas leasing. Officials in Florida, North and South Carolina…

The U.S. Coast Guard said it conducted multiple rescues during a mudslide response in Santa Barbara County, Tuesday. At approximately 9 a.m., Tuesday, a Coast Guard Sector San Diego MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter crew launched to assist Santa Barbara County Fire Department with rescues after heavy rains caused mudslides in the Santa Barbara County area. At approximately 11:30 a.m., the Jayhawk crew was notified of a family needing assistance in Carpentaria, Calif. The crew arrived on scene and lowered both rescue swimmers to evaluate the situation.

Mitsui O.S.K. Lines (MOL)  is pleased to announce that the United States National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary has honored MOL with an award for the company's participation in the 2016 Vessel Speed Reduction (VSR) incentive program. Launched in 2016 by NOAA's Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary, Santa Barbara County Air Pollution Control District, Ventura County Air Pollution Control District, National Marine Sanctuary Foundation and Volgenau Foundation, the VSR program is a voluntary program that incentivizes containerships to slow down to speed at or below 12 knots, thereby reducing air pollution and enhancing protection of endangered whales in the Santa Barbara Channel.

Evergreen Line has received recognition for its excellent performance in a voluntary environmental and ecological protection program, which started on July 1 last year and ended on November 15. The initiative was aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions of vessels and avoiding whale collisions by encouraging slow sailing speeds in California's  Santa Barbara Channel region. The recognition ceremony took place on January 23, 2017. Vessels enrolled in this program were required to reduce speeds to 12 knots or less within 95 nautical miles of the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. This practice helps to minimize the emissions of greenhouse gases and thus reduce their influence on air quality within the port community.

The U.S. Coast Guard was investigating a large oil sheen off the California coast west of Santa Barbara on Wednesday, a spokeswoman for the agency said. The slick, which was about 60 feet (18 meters) wide, was spotted about 1,000 yards (meters) offshore from Goleta State Beach west of Santa Barbara, said Coast Guard spokeswoman Petty Officer Andrea Anderson. Anderson could not give the approximate length of the sheen. In May, as much as 2,400 barrels of crude oil were spilled onto a pristine beach about 15 miles (24 km) west of Goleta when a pipeline ruptured along the coast. But there were no immediate reports of any link between the two incidents. "We don't have a definite source yet," Anderson said of the oil sheen discovered on Wednesday.

Clean-up costs associated with a Californian oil pipeline rupture that dumped as much as 2,400 barrels of crude onto a pristine stretch of coastline and into the Pacific Ocean have exceeded $60 million, the Los Angeles Times reported on Wednesday. Plains All American Pipeline spokeswoman Meredith Mathews told the newspaper that expenses for restoring the affected area near Santa Barbara ran as high as $3 million a day. Mathews added that the total, which did not include financial damage claims from people or businesses that may have been affected by the spill, were likely to increase as clean-up efforts continued. Representatives for the pipeline did not immediately respond to requests from Reuters for comment.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Coast Guard issued a joint federal Clean Water Act order to ensure the cleanup of heavy crude oil leaked from a pipeline near Refugio State Beach, Santa Barbara County, Calif. The order requires Plains Pipeline, L.P. (a.k.a. Plains All American Pipeline), the pipeline owner and operator, to continue its cleanup work inland, beachside, and in the ocean, to contain the oil and prevent further shoreline contamination. Today’s…

A pipeline ruptured along the scenic California coastline on Tuesday, spilling some 21,000 gallons (79,000 liters) of oil into the ocean and on beaches before it could be secured, a U.S. Coast Guard spokeswoman said. The pipeline, which runs parallel to Highway 101 near Santa Barbara, left a slick extending about four miles (6.4 km) along Refugio State Beach, extending about 50 yards (46 meters) into the water, Petty Officer Andrea Anderson of the Coast Guard said. Anderson said the company responsible for the 24-inch (61- cm) pipeline was identified as Plains All American Pipeline, which had brought in a company to begin cleaning up the spill. Refugio State Beach was closed. The cause of the rupture had not been determined, Anderson said.

The security drill was the first since the rollout of the Port’s new Maritime Advanced Systems and Technology Lab (MAST) program and involved an Offshore Platform Security Threat Awareness and Response Program exercise (OPSTAR) conducted by the Naval Postgraduate School’s Center for Asymmetric Warfare and the U.S. Coast Guard. The half day OPSTAR exercise called for a simulated attack and occupation of an Off Shore Oil Platform within the Santa Barbara Channel and included a no…

According to a May 22 report from the California Chronicle, Santa Barbara City Councilmember Das Williams called for an immediate moratorium on all offshore oil leasing, as well as the reopening of a Minerals and Management Service (MMS) field office in Santa Barbara County. (Source: California Chronicle)

According to a June 1 report from the Los Angeles Times, the State Lands Commission lashed out at Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's attempt to reverse its rejection of the first new oil drilling in California waters since 1969. At a contentious hearing in Santa Monica, the commission passed a resolution urging legislators not to go along with Schwarzenegger's plan, which would revive a drilling project off the Santa Barbara County coast that the commission killed in January. (Source: Los Angeles Times)

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers issued a Notice of Intent to prepare a Joint Environmental Impact Statement/Environmental Impact Report for the Ventura Harbor Sand Bypass System and Regional Beneficial Reuse Feasibility Study. The study will evaluate measures to improve maintenance of federal harbors in the Ventura/Santa Barbara County area of California for more efficient operations and beneficial uses of the dredged material for storm damage protection and environmental restoration and enhancement. 67 Fed. Reg. 1452

The Minerals Management Service (MMS) issued a Notice stating that it has prepared an environmental assessment and finding of no significant impact for the planned repair project on the submarine power cable that links an offshore platform with the shore in Santa Barbara County. 70 Fed. Reg. 10111 (HK Law)