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Santa Barbara County Sued By Greka Oil

Written by Christina Heller

Story Created: Jan 29, 2009 at 3:30 PM PDT

Story Updated: Jan 29, 2009 at 10:20 PM PDT

Santa Maria, Ca-- The County of Santa Barbara has been slapped with a lawsuit by Greka Oil Company. Greka alleges, that a recently passed county ordinance is "unconstitutional." Michael Zimmer, the petroleum administrator with the county has also been named in the suit.

Greka claims they are being unfairly targeted by the county and says their "non-offending" sites should not be reprimanded when a single facility may fail.

On January 13th, the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors approved a "repeat offender" ordinance that would shut down oil production when a company experiences numerous facility failures that result in hazardous spills. Under the ordinance, the county has the ability to shut down non-offending facilities as well as the offending sites.

Greka argues the constitutionality of the ordinance and is also upset with the county's definition of a "high-risk operator." The county says, any oil company who has experienced numerous and frequent facility failures can be classified as a "high-risk operator."

It is estimated that in December of last year, Greka was responsible for spills totaling over 10,000 gallons of crude oil and produced water.

KEY News Reporter Mike DeFina has more.
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