The company has two injection wells on a site located on unincorporated land near Oxnard. Since 2010, according to records from the California Division of Oil, Gas and Geothermal Resources, at its main well the company injected 2,195,364 barrels of oil-field-related fluids at a depth of approximately 5,000 feet.
Category Archives: Ventura County
CA drought hits home — in Upper Ojai
Or, to be precise, the drought hits my backyard. Yesterday the second of two enormous oak trees that have fallen in the same area in the past month came crashing down. About a year ago an even bigger and more beloved oak in vicinity split apart and fell. Here's a basic phone pic that givesContinue reading “CA drought hits home — in Upper Ojai”
Anterra violates Ventura County permit routinely: State
According to public records available at the agency known as DOGGR (Division of Oil, Gas, and Geothermal Resources) the injection wells at Anterra in unincorporated land have routinely violated the amount of oil field fluids they are allowed in put into the Oxnard Plain by the county. The conditional use permit allows fluids from 24Continue reading “Anterra violates Ventura County permit routinely: State”
Ventura County busts fracking injection well in Oxnard
From the Ventura County Star, news today of a police bust of an injection well site in Oxnard — the only site in the county that accepts fracking fluid for disposal purposes.
OXNARD, Calif. – Investigators from the Ventura County District Attorney’s Office converged on the site of a local oil field waste company outside Oxnard on Thursday with search warrants.
Senior Deputy District Attorney Christopher Harman said investigators arrived at Anterra Corp.’s waste disposal site on East Wooley Road outside Oxnard on Thursday morning. The company’s headquarters in Santa Paula was also served, he said.
Harman said he could provide no further details about the open investigation of possible criminal violations.
Anterra officials had no prior warning of the searches and had not been interviewed by any agency before the investigators arrived, company attorney Jim Prosser said Thursday.
Prosser said he understands that investigators are looking at company activities in and around July 2013, when Anterra was under different management. He declined to say who was managing the company at that time, saying he didn’t know enough about the circumstances and the time period under investigation.
Interesting, but the timing mentioned by the corporation doesn't seem to jibe with this note from our local watchdog group, CFROG, which posted this a month ago about what sounded like an on-going dispute between the county and the corporation.
The Ventura County planning department is alleging that in just five months, at the Anterra Waste injection wells in Oxnard , the company injected 19.2 million gallons or 457 thousand barrels or of waste into two disposal wells on East Wooley road. (42 gallons = 1 barrel) They allegedly accepted a total of 4350 tanker trucks when the CUP allows 3096. (still far too many for safety in Oxnard in our opinion.) That's 1254 trucks coming down our highways and streets in violation of the current permit according to Ventura County. Class II underground injection wells. can take any fluid related to oil and gas drilling, including fracking waste water.
Anterra is appealing the decision on some interesting grounds including claims that planning manager Brian Baca is unethical and a hearing will be held October 23rd.
For some reason the Star story today did not mention this dispute over the volumes of fluids being disposed beneath Oxnard, although you must figure it's at the root of the conflict. It's well-known among geologists that there are thresholds to be attained before seismicity becomes possible. which is why the volume of fluids can be a crucial matter. But the paper has three reporters on this, so I'm sure we haven't heard the end of it.
Was just talking today with a geophysicist at UCSB who said a new study from CalTech found "induced seismicity" — earthquakes connected to injection wells — at a handful of injection wells sites in Kern County, out of a total of 1600.
So why worry? Right?
But the Ventura County D.A. has issues, clearly, when they send what looks like a SWAT to collect records from a corporation. Why the urgency if they're investigating what happened a year ago?
Follow-up from a commentator, Quiet against the Noise, in the "comm boxes" below the newspaper story, who seems to know more than all the rest of us put together. See here (or below the fold).
Record CA drought hits illegal pot grows
From a story in last week's Ojai Valley News:
Three years ago, local narcotics officers eradicated about 168,000 marijuana plants from Ventura County's backcountry.
This year, they've found much less — closer to 100,000.
So is that good news or bad?
Neither, say law enforcement officials. California's historic drought is drying up more than just lakes and reservoirs, it's draining the creeks and aquifers far upstream — the ones that marijuana growers utilize to water their gardens, which often contain thousands of plants.
"We had one up in Coyote Creek … and half of the grow was abandoned," said Sgt. Mike Horne of the Ventura County Sheriff's Office (VCSO) Narcotics Bureau. "They're just running out of water." In another grow near the Ortega Trail, he added, "When we went to cut it, it was gone — the reservoir had dried up."
Arguably this is burying the lede. It's not a question of good news or bad news. It's simpler — the drought is devastating everyone, even the illegal farmers ready and willing to cut corners.We may recall the Biblical words from Matthew: the rain falls on the just and the unjust alike. Here's a new version: the drought hits the law-abiding farmers and the unlawful farmer alike.
More detail from Misty Volaski, editor of the paper, below the fold, with a pic from a back country grow in Rose Valley busted last month.
Why is Oxy spinning off new California oilco?
One question regarding this news from last week (reported in the LA Times): A little more than a month after filing documents to spin off its California operations, Occidental Petroleum Corp. has named the leadership team for its proposed subsidiary. The longtime Los Angeles company announced in February that it was moving its headquarters toContinue reading “Why is Oxy spinning off new California oilco?”
The grit of SoCal beach culture: Britt Ehringer
“..in this show I thought he found a true wildness, a connection between punk and surfing, that was raw, edgy, and beautiful, both in composition and material.”
Ojai “too conservative” w/water: California DWR
From a panel discussion I covered, here's a fascinating anecdote from Steve Wickstrum, who has managed Ojai's Casitas Municipal Water District for many years. Ojai actually is doing okay with water through the drought right now — unlike many communities in the state. According to Wickstrum, Casitas water costs about $400 an acre-foot, which isContinue reading “Ojai “too conservative” w/water: California DWR”
Ojai Farmer to Ojaians: We fixed our leaks — your turn
From Kimberly Rivers' thoughtful story in the Ojai Valley News on the panel discussion this past weekend in Ojai on drought/water issues: At the Ojai Valley Inn last weekend, agriculture was a central topic. “It’s impossible to talk about water in California without turning a whole lot of attention to agriculture,” said Timm Herdt, moderatorContinue reading “Ojai Farmer to Ojaians: We fixed our leaks — your turn”
Chautauqua (incl. me) on KVTA talking water/drought
Don't get a chance to post an hour-long interview with me (in a sidekick/expert but chatty role) very often if ever, so excuse me for taking this opportunity to put myself on the record. The interview from three weeks ago can be accessed here — most of the information remains all too relevant:
Listen to KVTA's Lyn Fairly interview Tom Krause and Kit Stolz about the Ojai Chautauqua this Sunday.http://www.ojaichautauqua.org/lf614water.mp3
From Lynn Fairley's Saturday morning show on our local talk radio station, KVTA. Thank you Lynn!
Here's a picture from the event (which I wasn't able to moderate, being away at a fracking fellowship in Pittsburgh, learning about the Marcellus shale).
And here's a nice appreciation for the thoughtful, generous Tom Krause, who leads the Chautauqua as well as a great books discussion at Thomas Aquinas College, from Timm Herdt, who replaced me in my absence as moderator, and by all accounts did a great job.
From the Ventura County Star: A Thirst for Civil Discourse:
On Sunday afternoon in Ojai, about 200 people paid $20 apiece to fill a room to listen to a two-hour panel discussion on “the future of water.” The expert panelists had different backgrounds and different points of view, but it was not a debate. There was no drama.
And when it was over, the host pronounced it a success. Here’s why: “I think all of us are leaving with more questions than we had when we came,” said Tom Krause.
Kit Stolz 