by Karen Telleen-Lawton, Noozhawk Columnist (read the original in Noozhawk by clicking here)
You may not remember when H.L. Williams founded Summerland as a bucolic spiritualist community back in 1889.
The lots he sold to his followers for $25 cash were soon worth $7,500, as Summerland was caught up in the energy boom supporting the burgeoning automobile era.
Progress then was the world’s first offshore oil well, which came into operation here in 1896. Progress now is finding ways to continue powering our civilization while healing and sustaining the land. Summerland is again at the forefront.
Summerland was an oil center long before Williams, of course. The Chumash used the seeps of oil and asphalt on the beaches to caulk their tomols for the perilous journeys to the offshore islands.
Not many decades later, oil development in the 1890s dramatically changed the landscape. Summerland’s shoreline was checkered by more than 400 oil wells and pumping towers.
The town also became a refueling spot for the Los Angeles to Santa Barbara rail line established in 1887.
Oil development was controversial even at the beginning. A local newspaper publisher, Reginald Fernald, organized a group of vigilantes who tore down a drilling rig erected on Miramar Beach in the late 1890s.
(Note: nearby Fernald Point is said to be named for his father, Judge Charles Fernald, who moved here from Maine in 1852 and promptly purchased a frame house at Prisoner’s Harbor on Santa Cruz Island for $10.)
This onshore and near-shore oil field eventually produced some 3 million barrels of oil in more than 50 years, until 1940. A nearby offshore deposit was discovered in 1957, producing oil from Platforms Hilda and Hazel, with production peaking in 1964.
Eventually, maintenance costs, diminishing returns, and the infamous 1969 oil spill led Chevron to shut them down in 1996.
Which brings us to current progress. While environmental protections increased over the years, hundreds of wells were abandoned with little regard for the consequences.
They were simply plugged with earth or debris like wooden poles, old mattresses and other trash, according to ChannelKeeper. Periodic efforts have been made to find and cap leaking wells from these operations.
In the 1960s, 80 old wells were located and capped in an attempt to curtail oil leakage into the ocean. In 1975 and again in 1993, more wells were located and repairs made to reduce leakage.
Each effort utilized improved technology to cut, fill and cap the wells.
Two important events occurred in the last several months. In October, SB 44 passed, directing the State Lands Commission to catalog, investigate and cap leaking legacy wells and other coastal hazards to the tune of $2 million per year.
(Another note: This cost should by rights be paid by the oil industry rather than free-riding on our state funds. Buts that’s another story.)
Credit for this milestone belongs to the efforts and vigilance of elected officials like state Sen. Hannah-Beth Jackson, environmental groups like Heal the Ocean and ChannelKeeper, and many concerned citizens.
Second, the long-leaking Becker Well in Summerland has been capped at last. Three years in the planning, the EIR passed last August and the State Lands Commission approved the project in October.
Work began late last month and was completed on March 1, costing a total of about $1.4 million. One down, a couple hundred more to go!
Given Summerland and Santa Barbara County’s history with oil development, our concurrent history with activism is not surprising. Our actions, whether supporting legislation or reporting oil spill and tarballs, make a difference.
Progress now is ensuring that technology serves the long-term needs of people and the earth, our island home.
Karen Telleen-Lawton, Noozhawk Columnist
Karen Telleen-Lawton is an eco-writer, sharing information and insights about economics and ecology, finances and the environment. Having recently retired from financial planning and advising, she spends more time exploring the outdoors — and reading and writing about it. The opinions expressed are her own.