Panel Hears Oil ‘Rig-to-Reef’ Bill Debate

A bill that could allow oil companies to leave out-of-service oil rigs off the California coast as “artificial reefs” sparked heated debate Tuesday before a Senate committee between supporters and environmental groups opposing the legislation.

Proponents of the “rig-to-reef” conversions say that underwater steel towers that support oil platforms are home to a rich array of aquatic life and should be left untouched even after the rigs are retired. State and federal laws call for decommissioned oil rigs to be entirely removed, the wells capped and the sea floor restored to its natural condition.

A bill by Sen. Dede Alpert (D-Coronado) would allow the evaluation of each retired platform as an artificial reef, leaving it up to state and federal agencies whether to grant oil companies permission to leave the structures in place.

A portion--perhaps 50% or more--of the estimated hundreds of millions of dollars that oil companies expect to save by not having to completely remove them would be deposited into a marine research fund.

“It’s a win-win situation,” Alpert said at a news conference Tuesday.

Those opposing the legislation at a Senate Natural Resources and Wildlife Committee hearing Tuesday included a contingency from Santa Barbara County, where the Board of Supervisors voted last week to oppose Alpert’s bill.

Critics contend that the legislation is premature given limited research on the subject. A key issue is whether such artificial reefs increase fish populations or merely reorganize them.

Committee members voted to amend the bill Tuesday to address various concerns, such as how to create no fishing zones around the reefs.

The committee is expected to take a final vote next Tuesday.

More than half of the state’s offshore rigs sit off Ventura and Santa Barbara counties.

“These structures could cause possible pollution and/or impact an area’s natural reefs in a negative way,” said Linda Krop, chief counsel of the Environmental Defense Center, a nonprofit public interest environmental law firm.

Over the next 25 years, 32 rigs are expected to be decommissioned, of which 27 are steel structures and the remaining are artificial islands, said George Steinbach, Chevron Corp.’s decommissioning project manager.

Steinbach said rough estimates of savings to the oil industry should the rigs become reefs range from $600 million to $1.2 billion. He estimated that half would be available to an endowment fund.

By establishing the fund, however, Krop and others worry, the legislation would provide too great a financial incentive for agencies to leave decommissioned oil rigs in the ocean, rather than removing the towers completely.

Sen. Byron Sher (D-Palo Alto), one of two committee members who abstained from voting on amending the bill Tuesday, said he was concerned that setting up the endowment would create a momentum that would be difficult to reverse.