California’s No. 1 inland oil polluter—aka Greka Oil & Gas, aka HVI Cat Canyon, aka owned by Randeep Grewal—is now on the hook for $65 million for more than 12 oil spills between 2005 and 2010.
Oil spills, as in plural, as in multiple spills taking place over and over and over again on the property HVI operated on in Cat Canyon. According to court documents, 181 spills were reported to the California Office of Emergency Services between 2006 and 2018. So way more than what’s included in the 2011 lawsuit that the U.S. Justice Department, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, California Water Quality Control Board, and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife filed against HVI.
A judge recently ruled that the company pay the state and federal agencies a combined $65 million for violating federal regulations, cleanup costs, and natural resource damage.
Santa Barbara County Planning Department Energy, Minerals, and Compliance Division Supervising Planner Errin Briggs thinks there’s a fat chance that anyone’s going to see a dime from HVI.
“This company used Santa Barbara County and went bankrupt and walked away. It’s actually a major bummer,” Briggs said.
It’s a total bummer. Briggs said the county had constant issues with HVI/Greka, which were never corrected. HVI filed for bankruptcy in 2019 after the state hit the company with $12 million in fines for its operating practices.
Then, the company just abandoned its leaky, half-broken infrastructure to continue rotting away in Cat Canyon. Now, the state is working to plug more than 200 of the 500 oil wells the company walked away from. Good thing Grewal and his family of Greka engineering and energy companies are operating in other countries—China and India—with much less stringent regulations than California. It took us more than 10 years to even get a judgement against a company that everyone knew was a bad actor. Just imagine what’s happening elsewhere.
Speaking of a bad actor, what’s up with Solvang?
Once again, the city seems to be leaning on its Danish heritage to do things that make me scratch my little birdy brain. In February, the Solvang City Council denied an application from The Rainbow House Inc. to put Pride banners up for Pride Month—with Councilmember Robert Clarke calling the request “political” and proving my point that he shouldn’t have been appointed to serve on the council after losing an election.
“This is the friendliest goddamned town I’ve ever been in,” Clarke said, just sweeping away the comments residents made about being called names for being gay. “Banners for a whole month? I don’t get that.”
It’s for Pride month, so I get that you don’t understand it. And the comments other residents made at the meeting just point to how badly Solvang needs a wake-up call. Brand marketing executive, commercial property owner, and stalwart Danish-American Jessie Condit Bengoa is a stunning example.
“You don’t alienate visitors by suddenly waging a woke campaign,” she said. “This isn’t about gay or straight, this is about a public campaign that would push this ideology in front of our already established and welcoming brand of the city of Solvang.”
I’m confused. Are all of the Danish buildings suddenly going to disappear if the city puts Pride Month banners up? It sounds like it’s absolutely about “gay or straight.”
The Canary is astonished but not surprised. Respond to canary@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Mar 9-16, 2023.