April 20, 2025 - SANTA BARBARA, Calif.— Last week, the Center for Biological Diversity and Wishtoyo Foundation sued the California Office of the State Fire Marshal for waiving safety rules for the oil pipeline that ruptured in 2015 and released about 450,000 gallons of oil near Refugio State Beach. The office granted the waivers without conducting any environmental review or a public hearing.
A federal investigation into the pipeline’s 2015 failure determined that the pipeline’s design flaws and resulting corrosion were the direct cause of the rupture that led to one of California’s worst oil spills. The waivers at the center of this challenge would allow the 120-mile pipeline to be used even though its main defense against corrosion, called cathodic protection, is ineffective.
“It’s inexcusable to waive safety standards for an old, fatally flawed pipeline system that already failed catastrophically once,” said Julie Teel Simmonds, a senior attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity. “Exempting this pipeline from basic corrosion prevention requirements is a mindbogglingly shortsighted move that puts our incredible coastline at risk of yet another massive spill. The State Fire Marshal pushed out these waivers without even taking a hard look at all the environmental and public safety risks, and our marine wildlife and coastal communities could wind up once again covered in toxic crude.”
The onshore and offshore pipelines, three offshore platforms, and onshore processing facilities known collectively as the Santa Ynez Unit have been shut down for nearly 10 years since the pipeline failed. In 2024 a new company, Sable Offshore Corp., purchased the Santa Ynez Unit from ExxonMobil, largely using funds it borrowed from Exxon. Sable has worked hastily to try to resume oil operations using the failed pipeline, and the state waivers are a key step toward restarting the Santa Ynez Unit as a whole.
Today's lawsuit seeks compliance with pipeline safety and environmental laws. That includes public disclosure of the environmental effects of allowing restart of the Santa Ynez Unit by granting the safety waivers.
“The State Fire Marshal’s Office has utterly failed to protect our communities and cultural resources,” said Mati Waiya, executive director for the Wishtoyo Chumash Foundation. “We cannot allow such a heavily corroded and corrosion-prone pipeline to threaten our lands and waters, once again, with an oil spill. It is absurd that an institution meant to protect our communities should take such a flagrant action as waiving safety requirements for such a poorly designed and objectively dangerous pipeline.”
Today’s lawsuit was filed in Superior Court in Santa Barbara County.
Sable has recently been engaged in substantial construction work on the pipeline in violation of the Coastal Act. On April 10, the California Coastal Commission issued a third cease-and-desist order, a restoration order and a penalty of either about $18 million or $15 million, depending on Sable’s cooperation, for damage from the company’s unpermitted work.
The Center for Biological Diversity and Wishtoyo Foundation also have a lawsuit pending against the federal government for extending leases and issuing permits that facilitate the restart of the Santa Ynez Unit without any recent environmental review. An additional lawsuit from the groups challenges the federal failure to require updated production plans for the unit.
The 2015 Refugio spill devastated 150 miles of the California coast, polluting thousands of acres of shoreline and habitat, killing hundreds of marine mammals and birds and shutting down beaches and fisheries. Restoration and compensation cost hundreds of millions of dollars, and the spill resulted in a felony conviction for the pipeline’s former owner.
Off Shore Oil Rigs | Southern California.Camarillo | Santa Barbara | credit: Aerial Photography by Drew Bird Photography
The Center for Biological Diversity is a national, nonprofit conservation organization with more than 1.8 million members and online activists dedicated to the protection of endangered species and wild places.
Founded in 1997, the Wishtoyo Chumash Foundation is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit grassroots organization that enhances the well being of communities by preserving and protecting Chumash Native American culture, and the natural resources all people depend upon throughout California and the traditional Chumash range in Ventura, Los Angeles, Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties. To learn more about Wishtoyo visit us at www.wishtoyo.org.
Source: Center for Biological Diversity
