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Oil industry sues to block pollution standards on platforms Association concerned action could set precedent for states to demand control over 4,000 Gulf of Mexico platforms The Associated Press
An oil industry trade group sued the California Coastal Commission to prevent it from enforcing ocean pollution laws on 22 drilling platforms that stand in federal waters offshore.
The lawsuit, filed July 7 in federal court in Los Angeles, seeks an injunction barring the commission from enforcing its regulations beyond the state’s three-mile limit.
The suit contends that the commission has taken “illegal actions” and “abused and violated powers entrusted to them as California’s coastal zone management agency.” The commission “is trying to extend its authority into federal waters where it doesn’t have authority,” said Frank Holmes, a manager with the Western States Petroleum Association.
The state’s standards on such matters as discharges of toxic metals and oily wastewater are stricter than federal requirements. But the lawsuit contends that the standards aren’t approved under the federal Coastal Zone Management Act.
“It’s part of the checks and balances,” said Jocelyn Niebur Thompson, an attorney who filed the case. “We say the standards have to have been submitted and approved as written before they apply.”
“This is a turf issue, and an attempt by oil companies trying to get around protecting water quality at a higher level,” said Peter Douglas, executive director of the coastal commission.
However, he said, many individual oil companies already have agreed to comply with the state standards. California could set precedent The lawsuit could effect operations at nearly two dozen oil platforms between Santa Barbara and Orange counties.
Douglas contended that the industry is worried that if California standards can apply, it might create a precedent for other states to regulate about 4,000 oil and gas platforms in the Gulf of Mexico.
The platforms off the California coast were granted discharge permits by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as far back as the 1970s but they have expired.
In December, the EPA issued a draft of proposed new regulations, which would reduce the amount of oil and grease the platforms could discharge and would require them to monitor waters for heavy metals and other pollutants.
The oil association applied for a new permit under the proposed regulations but the state Coastal Commission objected in March because the federal standards would not comply with a state ocean plan.
Meanwhile, the oil platforms have been allowed by the EPA to continue operating under the old rules.
Alexis Strauss, regional director of the EPA’s water division, said she hoped a new permit would be issued by the end of July but the lawsuit could push back the date.
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