Oil Firms File Offshore-Drilling Suit

The owners of 22 offshore oil platforms located in federal waters off the California coast contend in a lawsuit filed Wednesday that they shouldn’t have to comply with strict state rules controlling the release of oily wastewater and drilling muds into the ocean.

The Western States Petroleum Assn. sued the California Coastal Commission, arguing that the agency has unlawfully extended its jurisdiction by insisting that the state’s standards on the discharge of toxic metals and other substances be applied to platforms located outside the state’s 3-mile limit.

“Basically, the California Coastal Commission is trying to extend its authority into federal waters where it doesn’t have authority,” said Frank Holmes, a Western States Petroleum Assn. manager. He said the oil companies are willing to accept federal standards for discharges, caused by oil pumping operations and the drilling of new wells.

Peter Douglas, the commission’s executive director, said the agency pushed the issue because the state has substantially stricter rules than the federal government regarding the discharge of toxic metals and other contaminants that can harm wildlife or impair human health.

“This is a turf issue, and an attempt by oil companies trying to get around protecting water quality at a higher level,” Douglas said.

Mostly, Douglas said, the companies are worried about setting a precedent on their 22 California platforms that could affect their far more extensive offshore oil and gas operations -- about 4,000 platforms -- in the Gulf of Mexico.

If California is allowed to impose stricter standards, other states bordering the gulf could also insist on tougher standards, state and oil officials agree. The owners and operators of the platforms include Exxon-Mobil, Plains Exploration and Production Co., Aera Energy, Veneco Energy and Pacific Operators Offshore Inc.

The fight between oil companies and the Coastal Commission focuses on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s long outdated discharge permits for the existing oil platforms off the coast.

All of these platforms are operating on expired permits -- some issued in the late 1970s -- governing the discharge of fluids and muds used in drilling wells and other oil production operations.

The EPA has been working since 1996 to negotiate tougher standards that would satisfy the oil industry as well as state and local officials.

Last December, the EPA issued a draft of its updated permit, which would reduce the amount of oil and grease allowed to be discharged by 1,250 pounds a day from the 22 platforms combined.

It also requires monthly monitoring for a long list of pollutants, including arsenic, copper, lead, mercury and chromium 6, and would impose limits on the toxic substances released if any of them are found in significant amounts.

In March, the 12-member Coastal Commission voted to reject the EPA’s draft permit, insisting that it incorporate the state’s stricter standards. Under federal law, the commission has a voice in many federal decisions that could affect the state’s coastal zone.

The lawsuit filed Wednesday contends that the commission has taken “illegal actions” and “abused and violated powers entrusted to them as California’s coastal zone management agency” by insisting on the stricter pollution standards.

The lawsuit says that these state standards have never been submitted to federal officials for approval, as required under the Coastal Zone Management Act, and thus cannot be applied to activities in federal waters.

“It’s part of the checks and balances,” said Jocelyn Niebur Thompson, an attorney who filed the case. “We say the standards have to have been submitted and approved as written before they apply.”

Mark Delaplaine, a commission senior staff member, said the commission has pushed the more stringent standards for at least two decades without challenge.

“It’s an interesting legal question, but I think we are on good solid ground,” Delaplaine said.

Meanwhile, the EPA has been sued by Our Children’s Earth Foundation and other groups for failing to update the permit for offshore platforms with newer, more stringent standards. Alexis Strauss, regional director of the EPA’s water division, said she hoped the final permit would be issued by the end of July.

But she cautioned that the permit will not be valid until the conflict with the Coastal Commission is resolved.

Ultimately, Strauss said, the issue may be decided in the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals “by someone other than a mid-level government functionary like me.”