Eleven dormant oil wells inside Carrizo Plain National Monument will be permanently closed thanks to an agreement between a federal land agency and two environmental nonprofits.
The Aug. 15 settlement came about after Los Padres ForestWatch and the Center for Biological Diversity filed a 2020 lawsuit against the Bureau of Land Management for approving an E&B Natural Resources permit for a new oil well in the monument, and approved the repair or replacement of a run-down oil pipeline, according to Los Padres ForestWatch.
“The lawsuit said the proposed fossil fuel extraction would harm, threaten, and endanger wildlife and scenic views, violating the monument’s resource management plan, the Federal Land Policy and Management Act, and the National Environmental Policy Act,” representatives from the nonprofit said in a statement. “It was the first new oil well approved in the Carrizo Plain National Monument since it was established in 2001.”
Pursuant to the agreement, the bureau will move forward with remediation of 11 idle wells in the monument, federal officials told the Sun in an email. As part of the settlement agreement, E&B is no longer authorized to drill a new well. E&B could not be reached before the Sun’s deadline.
The Carrizo Plain lawsuit follows a recent agreement between the Bureau of Land Management and several environmental agencies that suspended new oil and gas drilling across more than 1 million acres within an eight-county area, ForestWatch Executive Director Jeff Kuyper said.
“They are completely different lawsuits filed at different times, and filed by different groups, but they are all part of this effort that we’re seeing in the state of California, and at the federal level, too, that recognizes that our reliance on fossil fuels has to change and we have to start looking at alternatives,” Kuyper said.
Nine active oil wells remain on the monument, and 24 others no longer produce oil, Kuyper said. The California Department of Conservation’s Well Finder confirmed that nine active oil wells and 29 idle wells belong to E&B. There are about 31 idle wells in Carrizo Plain total, according to the Well Finder. Once the bureau closes the first 11, Kuyper said he hopes to achieve a similar outcome for the others to restore the landscape.
“I would hope there’s a way to accomplish that without having to file a lawsuit. We’re just going to continue to talk with the bureau and oil company to see how we can best facilitate that. This agreement kick-starts the process of looking at all these wells that have just been sitting motionless inside the boundary for decades,” he added.
Now, the bureau has one year to complete an environmental impact report and formally approve the project—which it will announce to the public for people to weigh in on the project, Center for Biological Diversity Senior Scientist Ileene Anderson said.
“We’ll be part of the public process like anybody else out there. We will be reviewing the analysis when it’s available, making sure it will happen within the settlement agreement,” Anderson said.
Make a public comment by visiting the bureau’s Bakersfield district’s e-planning webpage, which announces any projects happening. After its final approval, the bureau has five years to restore the surrounding land to its natural condition.
“We’ve been concerned about the affects of fossil fuels with regards to climate change for literally decades,” Anderson said. “[Bureau of Land Management] lands have a lot of oil production on them, but so do some private lands, too. Oil and gas should be kept in the ground [to protect] the species and humans we care about.”
This article appears in Sep 8-15, 2022.
