By Jacob Klein
This blog post originally appeared on the Sierra Club Redwood Chapter website.
Sunset Exploration Inc., a Brentwood-based energy company, recently submitted an application to the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) to explore the site, which would be done in two phases.
Phase one proposes drilling one exploratory natural gas well at a site right by the water at an old Chevron site. If economical quantities are found, the project would move to a second phase, which includes installing production equipment and a natural gas pipeline to connect to an existing pipeline 8,821 feet to the northwest.
Phase one alone presents several potential environmental impacts, aside from well-known dangers associated with pipeline construction (as recently seen in the Chevron oil spill in Richmond). The impacts of constructing a drilling site, such as harm to air and water quality and to the surrounding ecosystem, not only need to be taken into consideration before a project like this moves forward, but should be more than sufficient reasons to reject the project altogether.
This is the same company that proposed an exploratory drilling site in Brentwood, which incurred vast community opposition and is still being reviewed. USACE has now released a supplemental public notice to allow for additional public comment.
The letter the Sierra Club Redwood Chapter signed enumerates the many questions we have about this project and why it needs a full environmental impact study.
Some of the concerns are as follows:
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Drilling and associated operations release various harmful emissions, such as greenhouse gases, nitrous oxide, and particulate matter 2.5 (PM 2.5), not to mention flaring. The connections between PM 2.5 exposure and increased mortality rates are becoming more and more linked, especially during this respiratory pandemic.
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The drilling site lies very close to waterways of the Suisun Marsh, which is part of the San Francisco Bay-Sacramento/San Joaquin River Delta estuary ecosystem that provides water locally and statewide. Drilling and extraction can cause soil and groundwater contamination due to the chemicals in use and due to historic gas field operations.
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As habitat to many species, Suisun Marsh provides home to endangered plant and animal life, including the salt marsh harvest mouse, California Ridgway’s (clapper) rail, California black rail, Soft bird’s beak, and Suisun thistle.
This project proposal comes at a time when there is significant pressure to place common-sense restrictions on drilling sites, such as 2,500-foot setbacks, and limiting certain kinds of oil extraction methods, like fracking. SB 467, introduced by state Sen. Monique Limon (D-Santa Barbara) and Sen. Scott Weiner (D-San Francisco), would help to protect public health and the environment, while also advancing job creation for workers in this industry.
Normally, this application would require a California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) process. However, the company may be trying to use a mitigated negative declaration that was granted to Venoco, Inc. in 2015 when that company proposed a similar project, which was then extended in 2017. It’s unclear if that very limited environmental review will still apply to Sunset’s new proposal, but we believe that a mitigated negative declaration is not enough and that a full Environmental Impact Report should be undertaken for CEQA purposes along with a full Environmental Impact Study for NEPA.
Thanks to pressure from local groups and from Congressman Mike Thompson, we have another opportunity to make our voices heard. Send a message to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers asking that it not fasttrack a project that could have such harmful impacts on the environment and public health, and instead hold a public hearing and require a full Environmental Impact Statement.
Public comment ends on April 2nd, so take action now!