City, County Receive Oil and Gas Royalties

Ventura County and the city of Ventura have been awarded $562,000 in offshore oil and gas royalties that can be used for a wide range of projects.

The money comes from royalties collected by the state from offshore oil drilling leases. Under new legislation pushed through by Assemblyman Brooks Firestone (R-Los Olivos), more lease money will be directed back to coastal communities impacted by oil and gas development.

Chrisanna Waldrup, a Firestone aide, said in the past revenues generated by the oil industry went to the state general fund.

The city of Ventura will use its $41,000 grant for redevelopment in its west-side area, which was once an oil-producing community, officials said.

The county received two grants. The first grant--for $341,000--will go toward improving the county’s outdated seismic information database.

Thomas Berg, director of the county’s Resource Management Agency, said the improved database will help evaluate potential earthquake threats to oil pipelines.

But the data will also have a spinoff benefit: The county will be able to use the seismic information to evaluate development projects planned along the coast.

The county will use the second grant--for $180,000--to update its coastal plan, a blueprint for all development on the coast.

Berg said the county completed its coastal plan in the 1970s, and has not done a full-scale revision since.

Part of the revised plan will involve streamlining and simplifying the permit requirements for companies planning to build oil or gas facilities in the coastal zone.

But Berg emphasized that the streamlined process would not encourage more development by the oil and gas industry.

“I don’t know if it would result in approval of a project that would have ordinarily been denied,” Berg said. “But it could make it simpler and faster to make a decision.”