The Santa Barbara County Fire Department issued a “stop work” order Thursday at several Greka Energy facilities in the North County, following more reported failures at the embattled oil company.
Thursday’s “stop work” orders affected two facilities—the Ucal lease on Dominion Road and the Bradley 3 Island facility on Telephone Road. The orders had already been given to two other facilities: the Bell lease on Palmer Road, and the Davis lease on Zaca Station Road.
Thursday’s reported incidents involve poor maintenance and failed equipment, such as inoperable injection pumps, failed alarms and tank over-flows, said Capt. Eli Iskow, spokesman for the Santa Barbara County Fire Department. He added that there were no immediate threats to the public.
“There was also a release of an undetermined amount of KD (kerosene distillate), used to thin oil, into the ground and parking lot at the Ucal lease,” he said in a statement. “Due to the rain, there is contaminated runoff migrating into the seasonal creek at the Bradley 3 Island tank battery facility.”
They come on the heels of a series of embarrassing oil spills over the past several months at the company.
“We have teams of firefighters, inspectors and Hazardous Materials Specialists at all four facilities,” he said. “Besides County Fire, Federal EPA, County Petroleum, State Fish and Game, State Department of Oil, Gas and Geothermal Resources all have personnel on scene.”