Corrosion, Methane Flares, Toxic Discharges
Touring California’s Aging Offshore-oil Platforms
It was 3 a.m. when the deckhand knocked on my cabin door, waking me for our Platform Gilda tour. I was about to get an up-close look at one of the aging offshore oil-drilling platforms along California’s coast and see some of its greenhouse gas emissions.
I climbed down from our ship into a small boat. Beside me a certified thermographer from the nonprofit group Earthworks was using an infrared camera to identify pollution emitted from the platform. The ominous, well-lit facility towered over us as we glided through the dark water.
Then the thermal imaging showed a hotspot — a methane flare.
Offshore platforms are prohibited from flaring except in rare circumstances, but here was one flaring on our visit. The United States is one of the top flaring countries, and the federal government has pledged to better regulate the wasteful practices of both venting and flaring greenhouse gases.
I was struck by how routinely offshore platforms seemed to spew greenhouse gases. In fact, during my three-day trip along the California coast aboard Greenpeace’s Arctic Sunrise, we saw numerous offshore drilling platforms flaring methane.
Yet I was even more worried about the corrosion and age of the platforms. As our skipper circled as close as possible without crossing into the no-entry zone, the hulking, rusted platforms seemed to belong to a bygone era.
We visited a majority of the 30 offshore oil and gas platforms off California. Many were corroded from the harsh ocean environment, heightening my concern about another oil spill.
Platform Gilda is old and well overdue for decommissioning. It is 17 years beyond the 20-year lifespan described in its 1978 environmental impact report. Platform A, the source of the infamous 1969 Santa Barbara oil spill, is also still standing.
One reason we visited Platform Gilda is its history of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking — the use of extreme pressure and chemicals to crack the subsea rock to stimulate oil production. Platforms in federal waters like Gilda are permitted to discharge wastewater, including toxic fracking chemicals, into the ocean.
The federal government all but ignores the dangers offshore fracking chemicals pose to marine life and coastal communities, despite studies warning of their toxicity. That’s why my organization — the Center for Biological Diversity — will be in federal court in Los Angeles Nov. 5, urging a judge to reject the government’s shoddy environmental review of offshore fracking.
What I saw at Gilda only increased my concern. The tall industrial platform stood precariously over the wildlife-rich waters of the Santa Barbara Channel.
This offshore infrastructure is past its prime and puts our coast at great risk of another oil spill. These relics should be decommissioned, and drilling should be phased out along our coast.
Instead the Trump administration has proposed to offer new leases off the California coast — over the objections of the state legislature and governor — for the first time in 30 years.
California adopted legislation to prevent new offshore-drilling infrastructure because of the risk it poses. Yet people must push the administration to remove the Pacific from its offshore-drilling expansion as the new plan is up for public comment early next year.
I’ll never forget my up-close look at the corroded old platforms squatting in our coastal waters. Building a new generation of these hulking threats to our climate and our beautiful shoreline would be a mistake regretted by future generations of Californians. We can’t let it happen.
Miyoko Sakashita directs the oceans program for the Center for Biological Diversity, an environmental organization that works to protect endangered species.
