A new bill has been introduced in the state Senate aimed at improving communication between different levels of government and the public after an oil spill.
State Senator Ben Allen said he developed the Senate Bill 1083 in response to public comments at a hearing in Manhattan Beach regarding the government’s response to the tar balls which washed up on May 27. The incident was later linked to the Refugio oil spill that took place over 100 miles north the week before.
“We were concerned to hear from South Bay community residents that they received almost no information during the beach closure and tar ball cleanup process,” said Allen in a press release. “People were unaware that the tar balls were linked to the Refugio spill, and that Plains All American Pipeline was obligated to pay for the economic and environmental harm that was caused. With this legislation, we are seeking to improve communications channels in future oil spill-related incidents.”
Representatives from environmental groups such as Heal the Bay and Surfrider Foundation complained at the hearing that the government hadn’t kept them abreast of developments, and so they in turn weren’t able to answer the public’s questions.
“People were afraid to go after the beaches reopened because the information was so spotty and tar was still washing up,” said Craig Cadwallader, the head of the South Bay chapter of the Surfrider Foundation. “People come to rely on Surfrider and Heal the Bay to help make sure it’s safe. They were angry at us because we didn’t have information.”
Another Surfrider representative, preservation manager Stefanie Sekich-Quinn, said that within a couple of days of the initial spill, a UC Santa Barbara professor had tried to share his findings that the oil would go around the Channel Islands and then arrive in the South Bay, but that the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Association wasn’t responsive.
Senate Bill 1083 directs the state’s lead oil spill agency, the Department of Fish and Wildlife’s Office of Spill Prevention and Response, to develop a way that local agencies or non-government organizations can share information with the responders and to implement “a process for early community outreach in affected areas that ensures the public has up-to-date and timely information on the oil spill, including a protocol for informing each community, city, county, and city and county of the name of the responsible party and of the right of affected parties to file claims against the responsible party,” among other things.
Another complaint at the hearing was that Plains All American Pipeline, which was responsible for the spill, was involved in the communications to the public. A representative from the Department of Fish and Wildlife said it was standard to have someone from the company be part of the joint unified command, the temporary power structure put in place in response to an incident that falls under the jurisdiction of more than one agency. However, the Santa Barbara Independent reported that the Refugio joint information center targeted journalists it thought were sympathetic for communications. Allen’s bill addresses this as well.
“In addition to requiring the inclusion of a communications element in spill response plans, SB 1083 prohibits anyone employed by the party responsible for the spill from serving as the public information officer for unified command or from having a role in developing or reviewing any communications to the media,” said the press release from Allen’s office. “This provision stems from reports that employees of Plains All American Pipeline were allowed to control media and public access to the site of the Refugio spill in its aftermath.”
Given that the source of the tar balls wasn’t announced by the government until June 23, almost a month after they arrived, it isn’t clear if the bill would have made a difference initially in Manhattan Beach.
“Once we did find out it came from Refugio, we would have a communications plan in place,” said Allen.
The vice president of Heal the Bay, Sarah Sikich, said that although she hadn’t reviewed the bill in depth, she thought it addressed an important problem.
“How ineffective the communication was in the wake of the Refugio oil spill shed light on how the process needs to be improved, so we applaud Senator Ben Allen for introducing the bill,” said Sikich.
Sikich said that her organization had pushed the authorities to disseminate their warnings about the spill more widely beyond Santa Barbara when the spill first occurred.
“We were calling for public warnings but it wasn’t considered seriously by public officials” initially, she said.
She hopes that in the future, “given how likely oil is to spread, the response is more comprehensive, both with communication and monitoring.”
After passing through the Senate, the bill will go before the assembly for approval. Allen said he anticipated support for the bill among his colleagues, who approved three other bills related to the Refugio oil spill last year which became law. ER
