Plans to drill as many as 12 oil wells in the Huasna Valley are scheduled to go before the San Luis Obispo County Planning Commission in February.
In the meantime, the county Board of Supervisors on Tuesday is expected to allocate an additional $57,000 to complete an environmental review of the project. The extra money is needed because the project generated 650 comments from the public — four times as many as expected.
“A large number of comments are very detailed and will require additional research and analysis in order to develop adequate responses,” said John Peirson, a principal with Marine Research Specialists, consultants hired to prepare the project’s environmental impact report.
Oil company Excelaron is proposing the project and is paying the cost of the environmental impact report, which is expected to total nearly $428,000. The company is willing to pay the additional $57,000 in order to get a legally defensible project, said Carol Florence, the project’s planner.
John McKenzie, county planner for the project, expects the final environmental report to be published by the end of the year. Starting Feb. 23, a total of four hearings before the Planning Commission and Board of Supervisors are expected.
The site of the project is the Mankins Ranch, 12 miles east of Arroyo Grande in the Huasna Valley. The first phase of the project would be exploration to determine exactly how much oil is in the ground.
“This is really more an evaluation than an exploration because we know the oil is there,” Florence said.
Project geologist Arthur Halleran estimates that nearly 100 million barrels of oil lie beneath the valley, of which 2 million to 4 million barrels would be recoverable. Heavy oil of this type, which is the consistency of honey, fetches about $70 per barrel.
That means the field could yield $280 million worth of oil. If the project goes into full production, as many as six truckloads or 1,000 barrels of oil a day could be produced.
However, the project has provoked stiff resistance from some of the valley’s 200 residents. Their concerns include noise, odor, truck traffic and changes in the rural character of the valley.
SanLuisObispo.com is happy to provide a forum for reader interaction, discussion, feedback and reaction to our stories. However, we reserve the right to delete inappropriate comments or ban users who can't play nice. See our full terms of service here.
Here are some rules of the road:
You should also know that The Tribune does not screen comments before they are posted. You are more likely to see inappropriate comments before our staff does, so we ask that you click the "report abuse" button to submit those comments for moderator review. You also may notify us via email at webmaster@thetribunenews.com. Note the headline on which the comment is made and tell us the profile name of the user who made the comment. Remember, comment moderation is subjective. You may find some material objectionable that we won't and vice versa.
If you submit a comment, the username of your account will appear along with it. Users cannot remove their own comments once they have submitted them, but you may ask our staff to retract one of your comments by sending an email to webmaster@thetribunenews.com. Again, make sure you note the headline on which the comment is made and tell us your profile name.
Be the first to know what's going on in San Luis Obispo County. Just tell us how you want to find out — we'll take care of the rest.
Sign up for breaking news alerts from SanLuisObispo.com and get the latest news sent to your cell phone via text message.
By signing up for alerts from this site, you are signing up for a program that may include up to 5 SMS text alert(s) per alert category per day. There is no service fee charged per month but your carrier's standard text messaging and other charges may apply. You may stop this subscription service at any time by sending the text message "STOP" to 72737. You must be at least thirteen (13) years of age to use our alert services. If you are between 13 and 17 years old, you agree that you have received parental permission both to complete the registration process and to receive SMS content on your cell phone. For help, send the text message "HELP" to 72737. This service will work with ATT, Verizon, Sprint, Nextel, Alltell, US Cellular, Cincinnati Bell, Boost, Virgin Mobile USA, Celluar South, Telos, Centennial, East Kentucky Network, Cellcom, Immix and Rural Celluar.
E-mail »
Twitter »
Facebook »
iTribune »
Subscribe »
RSS »
About comments
Reader comments on SanLuisObispo.com are the opinions of the writer, not The Tribune. If you see an objectionable comment, click the "report abuse" button below it. We will delete comments containing inappropriate links, obscenities, hate speech, and personal attacks. Flagrant or repeat violators will be banned. See more about comments here.