By Jon Ullman
The Ventura City Council passed a resolution to ask the state to do more environmental study of the SoCalGas cleanup and expansion proposal located at 1555 N. Olive St. on Ventura’s Westside.
Although the May 10 item was on the "consent agenda" -- a blanket vote where things usually are not even talked about -- it was by far the most commented on and visible issue of the night.
There were hundreds of written comments. There were about a dozen speakers who commented from a computer and camera set up at Bell Arts Factory in Ventura. There were about a dozen more who spoke from their own computers at home. Several speakers spoke Spanish and had their speeches translated. Many of the speakers were parents of children at EP Foster, which is across the street from the compressor site.
One speaker, Laura Gulovsen, 89 years old, is a retired teacher from the school from the 1960s through the 1990s who had responded to one of our Sierra Club emails. She testified publicly that she and her students and co-teachers commonly smelled and inhaled the fumes. Another was the Patagonia environmental chief, Hans Cole, who testified against the expansion. No one spoke in favor of SoCalGas.
Later, local activists, social and environmental groups met separately with representatives of the state's Public Utility Commission and Toxic cleanup agency, who have given the green light to this project with minimal oversight and public awareness.
This fight seems like it's about to get much bigger. At issue is the future of gas in California, how gas facilities are sited and regulated, how are people given public notice and if environmental justice and climate justice are just words on a paper or policies practiced by the state.
I have no idea how this will play out, but this journey has just begun.
The Sierra Club sent a letter supporting further review, asserting “this is a major, heavy industrial project -- building a new compressor station with twice the horsepower of the existing plant and removing the old plant -- next to an elementary school and in a residential area. Methane gas is highly explosive and dangerous.”
Other excerpts include:
“This site was a methane super-emitter in 2017, which could have caused a mass incineration event. Further, they will not commit to an outdoor methane detector for their new plant that would catch a similar leak in the future! Nor do they have plans for alerting the neighborhood of gas releases.”
“We also encourage the Ventura City Council to schedule consideration of an all-electric building reach code as over 40 cities in California have already done and Santa Barbara is about to do and Ventura County will be doing soon as well. It is less expensive to build without gas lines, and less expensive and healthier to live in a home with new, efficient, all-electric appliances.”
Sierra Club’s chapter chair, Katie Davis and Ventura Sierra Club’s Liz Lamar were leaders on this issue, while Condor John attended the April 24 rally and took pictures.
For those who want to watch the meeting, go to: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YyOjee8AjZk&t=4544s
The first speaker after the city presentation is Laura Gulovsen, Sierra Club member and retired teacher mentioned above.
Photo caption: City of Ventura Mayor Sofia Rubalcava speaking at SoCalGas protest Kellogg Park. Photo by John Hankins.