2 of 3 State Panelists Declare Opposition to Arco’s Offshore Wells

Two of the State Lands Commission’s three members announced Tuesday that they will vote against an Atlantic Richfield Co. proposal to build three oil-drilling platforms on state tidelands off the Santa Barbara coast.

The commission’s chairman, Lt. Gov. Leo T. McCarthy, and state Controller Gray Davis declared their opposition to the plan to construct the first new platforms on state-controlled lease sites since the 1969 Santa Barbara oil spill.

The spill, an environmental disaster for area birds and beaches, resulted in a state moratorium on drilling that was only lifted in 1975. But drilling has been limited to existing platforms and to exploratory wells off ships.

Davis said he is concerned about the cumulative effects of renewed oil development off the California coast, both on the federally controlled outer continental shelf and the state tidelands.

Speaking before the Sacramento Press Club, Davis revealed that the Lands Commission staff has prepared a critical report that will support rejection of the project at the commission’s next meeting later this month. Davis said he will vote against the Arco proposal “without prejudice” and will urge the commission to study the total impact of all future offshore oil development.

There is “one coast, one population and one affected state,” Davis said, and it would be a mistake to view any one project in isolation from the others.

McCarthy’s staff disclosed that he will also oppose the Arco proposal.

“The lieutenant governor’s position is that the project is incompatible with onshore facilities, particularly the marine research facility at UC Santa Barbara,” said McCarthy’s chief of staff, Alan Katz. “Another concern he has is the amount of offshore oil drilling that already exists in the Santa Barbara Channel. . . . That area is bearing more than its fair share.”

In contrast, Gov. George Deukmejian’s representative on the Lands Commission, Chief Deputy Finance Director Nancy Ordway, said Arco has done an adequate job of addressing the project’s potential environmental problems. She noted that the potential for development within three miles of the coastline--the tidelands area controlled by the state--is extremely small compared to that outside the limit, on the outer continental shelf, that is controlled by the federal government.

Davis and McCarthy, Democrats with ambitions to run for higher office, seemed to be vying with each other to take credit for killing the Arco project.

Davis told reporters that he was not certain of McCarthy’s vote but that he was encouraged by the Lands Commission staff report that will support denial of Arco’s proposal.

A McCarthy aide, who asked not to be identified, complained of Davis’ “showboating” and pointed out that as chairman of the Lands Commission, the lieutenant governor had given direction to the commission staff who prepared the report, which will not be released until later this week.

Arco’s permit director, Richard Ranger, said he is still hopeful of a favorable commission vote. He pointed out that the Lands Commission is only the first approval needed before construction of a platform can begin in 1988. Permits would also be necessary from the Coastal Commission, the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors, the Santa Barbara Air Pollution Control District and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Ranger said the Union Oil platform that caused the 1969 spill was in federal waters and was developed under regulations far less stringent than either the federal or state governments now have in place. The company would be required to use the best available technology to prevent oil spills and the release of pollutants into the air. Arco could not go ahead unless it could offset any increase in air pollution by reducing pollutants from other emission sources in the Santa Barbara area.

The company wants to build three double platforms to tap into three fields of oil that lie along the coast northwest of Santa Barbara. Arco already operates a platform constructed on one of the five lease tracts that would be developed under its current proposal.