Ventura County Board of Supervisors*

R01

The Grand Jury recommends that the Board of Supervisors require the production of an annual report summarizing the state of the crude oil pipelines within the County. This report will be a valuable asset to all entities potentially impacted by a spill. The County entities that are major stakeholders in the event of a pipeline spill, such as the Resource Management Agency/Environmental Health Division, the Sheriff's Department, the Office of Emergency Services, and the County Fire Department, should be involved in the generation of the report. The report shall, at the least, characterize the inventory of crude oil pipelines in the County, including: identifying current ownership and operators including contact information highlighting pipelines with outdated tests identifying pipelines with tests not independently verified identifying pipelines that do not conform to current regulations 0 identifying pipelines deemed by regulators to have spill/anomaly risks It shall also describe the spill events in the County since the previous report. These summary reports can be based on the reports/records available from the multiple regulatory entities identified in Finding 1. This would remove the need for the County to make its own assessments or do independent analysis and thereby minimize cost. Response to Grand Jury Report Form Report Title: Ventura County Crude Oil Pipeline Report Date: April 12, 2016 Response: This recommendation requires further analysis. As previously noted, on May 3, 2016, the Board of Supervisors took action to direct the County Executive Office to return with an analysis of preparing an annual report regarding crude oil pipelines and the more hazardous gas pipelines within the county. It is anticipated that this analysis will be presented to the Board in the September/October timeframe of this year. The purpose of the analysis is to determine whether the annual report is the appropriate way to address the issues presented in the Grand Jury report. Since that time, County staff has been contacting the state and federal agencies responsible for pipeline oversight, as well as pipeline operators in the unincorporated area of Ventura County, to collect information regarding their pipeline monitoring and safety programs. That effort is on-going. The CEO's Office will return to the Board with it analysis once the oversight authorities have responded to the County's data requests. Since the Grand Jury report was prepared, new state legislation has been passed which addresses some of the issues associated with crude oil pipeline oversight. For example, AB 864 and SB 295 direct the Office of the State Fire Marshal (OSFM) to develop regulations governing annual inspections of pipelines and the use of best available technologies for pipelines located near environmentally and ecologically sensitive areas. These regulations have not yet been released for public comment. Once these are available County staff will review them and make comments as needed to ensure they address the County's concerns regarding oil pipeline maintenance and monitoring. In addition, the state recently enacted AB 1420, which establishes a formal role for local government with regard to certain pipeline leaks. This new responsibility, in Ventura County, will be carried out by RMA's Environmental Health Division. AB 1420 states that if the local health officer is notified of a leak in an active gas pipeline that is within the jurisdiction of the Division of Oil, Gas, and Geothermal Resources (DOGGR) and within a sensitive area and the local health officer determines that the leak poses a risk to public health or safety and the response to the leak was inadequate to protect public health and safety, the local health officer shall, in collaboration with DOGGR and the owner/operator of the pipeline, do both of the following: (1) Direct the responsible party to test, to the satisfaction of the agency overseeing the testing, the soil, air, and water in the affected area for contamination caused by the leak and disclose the results of the tests to the public. (2) Make a determination, based on the result of the tests, on whether the leak poses a serious threat to the public health and safety of residents affected by the leak, and Response to Grand Jury Report Form Report Title: Ventura County Crude Oil Pipeline Report Date: April 12, 2016 require the responsible party to provide assistance, including temporary relocation, to those residents if the local health officer or his or her designee so determines. The specific language added to the Health & Safety Code through AB 1420 is provided in Attachment A. The County intends to work closely with DOGGR and other state and federal agencies to implement these new laws and regulations as well as others that may be enacted at the federal, state and local level. . Response to Grand Jury Report Form Report Title: Ventura County Crude Oil Pipeline Report Date: April 12, 2016 Attachment A SEC. 2. Section 101042 is added to the Health and Safety Code, to read: 101042. (a) If the local health officer or his or her designee is notified of a leak in an active gas pipeline, that is within the jurisdiction of the Division of Oil, Gas, and Geothermal Resources and within a sensitive area, pursuant to Section 3270.6 of the Public Resources Code and the local health officer or his or her designee determines that the leak poses a risk to public health or safety and that the response to the leak has been inadequate to protect the public health or safety, the local health officer or his or her designee shall, working collaboratively with the division and the owner or operator of the pipeline, do both of the following: (1) Direct the responsible party to test, to the satisfaction of the agency overseeing the testing, the soil, air, and water in the affected area for contamination caused by the leak and disclose the results of the tests to the public. (2) Make a determination, based on the result of the tests, on whether the leak poses a serious threat to the public health and safety of residents affected by the leak, and require the responsible party to provide assistance, including temporary relocation, to those residents if the local health officer or his or her designee so determines. (b) If the local health officer or his or her designee determines, based on the results of the test, that the leak poses a serious threat to public health and safety, the local health officer or his or her designee shall direct the responsible party to notify all residents affected by the leak. (c) The responsible party shall be liable for the costs incurred by the local health officer or his or her designee pursuant to this section. (d) Providing resident assistance and reimbursement for local health officer expenses shall not relieve a responsible party from liability for damages, and a responsible party shall not condition assistance or request a waiver of liability from the recipient of the assistance.