Possible Remedies for Exposed Oil Pipeline Examined

Water and debris rushing down the Ventura River in recent flood years have scoured the river bottom, exposing portions of a buried Chevron oil pipeline and raising fears among environmentalists that a split in the pipe during a flood could devastate the delicate estuary.

Although a Chevron engineer downplayed the severity of the situation, the company outlines the potential dangers of leaving the pipe exposed underwater in its application to the city of Ventura to fix the problem.

“The pipeline must be reburied or otherwise protected to prevent further exposure and structural degradation that may lead to catastrophic failure (i.e. oil spill),” the application states.

Chevron engineer Stephen O’Nesky said the company has never sent divers into the river to confirm that the 22-inch-wide pipe, buried several feet under the riverbed when laid in the mid-1960s, is indeed exposed.

“We feel like that side of the river is dipping down lower than the other side,” O’Nesky said. “We’re estimating that possibly there could be some exposure at different times of the year.”

But Chevron is more specific in its more than 100-page application, saying there is a 20-foot section of pipeline that is exposed and including diagrams that show the exposed section, near the western bank of the river.

The pipeline, which carries crude oil from the Rincon area on the coast near Santa Barbara to refineries throughout Southern California, is just a few hundred yards from the delicate estuary at the mouth of the Ventura River, home to the endangered tidewater goby and a sensitive riparian habitat that state and local agencies just spent $750,000 to restore. The pipeline’s underwater path parallels that of the Southern Pacific rail trestle.

For those who have witnessed the force of the river during a flood--whole trees sucked down its course, household appliances bobbing down to the ocean, water tearing at the river’s banks--the exposed pipeline seems very vulnerable. The floods of 1995 and 1992 have not been forgotten.

“The worst case would be if something hit the pipe and it broke,” Ventura city planner Linda Windsor said. “Big things come down the river in a flood. A motor home could come down that river.”

If the pipe broke, O’Nesky said, Chevron can close valves on either side of the river, stopping the flow within “minutes to seconds.” But it is impossible to ensure that no oil escapes.

“There is going to be some spillage before it is turned off,” O’Nesky said.

Early detection would be essential. In a case nearly three years ago, the entire McGrath Lake area near Oxnard State Beach was contaminated when a Berry Petroleum spill was unnoticed for four days, killing wildlife and overflowing into the nearby ocean.

A flood of oil into the Ventura River estuary would have drastic ramifications for the habitat, said Brenda Buxton, a project manager with the State Coastal Conservancy, which provided the bulk of the funding for the restoration project on the river.

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“It would have horrible environmental impacts,” Buxton said. “We definitely want the issue addressed.”

The Coastal Conservancy worked with the city of Ventura and the California Department of Parks and Recreation on the restoration project, unveiled just last month, to replant the estuary area with native shrubs, trees and flowers.

“Since we just sunk all this money into that estuary area, we want to protect that,” Buxton said.

She gives Chevron credit for working hard to find solutions to the problem, but she and others have not been able to come to an agreement yet with the company on its approach. Chevron’s proposal will be reviewed by, among others, the Coastal Conservancy, the California Department of Fish and Game, the California Coastal Commission, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The city of Ventura would issue the final approval after Chevron returns in the next few months with more details on its options.

In its application, Chevron lists five methods of covering the pipeline. But the method the company favors--wrapping the pipe in a giant, flexible concrete product called Armorflex--does not appeal to environmentalists. Buxton said she would rather see the pipeline reburied 25 feet under the river bottom.

“From what we can tell, directional drilling would have the least environmental impact,” she said.

According to Chevron’s O’Nesky, drilling into the river bottom to rebury the pipe would take about seven weeks, as opposed to four weeks to install the concrete mat. Chevron would establish a base in the parking lot at Emma Wood State Beach on the west side of the river. Drilling would require removal of the parking lot surface and the restroom, disrupting campers and day users of the recreational area.

“There could be metals or chemicals in the drilling fluid itself that could be purging up and contaminating the water, causing pretty good damage on the surface,” O’Nesky said.

Using the concrete mat method would involve smaller work crews and less intrusion into the habitat, O’Nesky said. The product has been used in similar projects for the past 10 years, but some officials say they would like to know more about Armorflex’s durability before committing to using it.

“There are some concerns about its longevity and its ability to withstand floods,” said Kate Symonds, a biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Virginia Gardiner Johnson, a resource ecologist with the state parks department, said the concrete mat would be “literally a Band-Aid over the pipeline.”

“The Armorflex has very good credentials,” she said. “But is it going to work in this river? You can’t just plunk down this concrete mat in an environmentally sensitive area.”

Though the logic of plunking down a pipeline in such a biologically sensitive area may have been flawed, Symonds noted, “when the pipeline was installed we may not have had the environmental awareness we have now.”

Planner Windsor said Ventura has not made a decision, but is leaning toward siding with the resource agencies against the Armorflex method.

“The resource agencies say, ‘Why protect the pipeline just in that one spot?’ ” Windsor said. “In another couple of years, isn’t it just going to be exposed again? Is this a good long-term solution?”

O’Nesky said Chevron wants to explore options that will please all the agencies involved.

“We feel we should go back and review all alternatives to see if there is a win-win alternative,” he said.