Thanks Judy for finding this!
This lecture did cover how methane seepage is tented and used, and how half is
absorbed by the sea. Summerland’s Legacy Well was finally capped last year. I
left the info about Oklahoma earhquakes connected to drilling out. They said
geologically that would not happen in our channel. Paul
Begin forwarded message:
From: judy w <judyw88@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Fw: [CINC] Truth about Seeps lecture: 3/16
Date: April 21, 2018 at 4:26:36 PM PDT
To: Paul Petrich <ppetrich39@xxxxxx>
________________________________
From: Channel_islands_naturalist_corps
<channel_islands_naturalist_corps-bounces@xxxxxxxx> on behalf of Paul Petrich
<ppetrich39@xxxxxx>
Sent: Saturday, March 19, 2016 12:57:48 PM
To: C I National Marine S anctuary and Nat P
Subject: [CINC] Truth about Seeps lecture: 3/16
Collegues,
Wednesday eve lecture topic at the SB Museum of Nat Hist was, “ The Truth
about Seeps: Natural and Anthropogenic Sources of Oil in the SB Channel.” by
Dr. Ira Leifer, Chem Engineering and Marine Sci UCSB + Steve Curran, Calif.
State lands Commis. Highlights follow:
* Over 1,200 natural oil seeps in the Santa Barbara Channel-Only Caspian
Sea has more.
* Everywhere oil seeps or leaks exist, methane gas is released. Local oil
industry collection of methane gas from off shore drilling via under sea-tent
technology ( at one two football field size location ) gathered up to 7.6
cubic feet of methane one peak year. That is equal to what 35,000 cars can
disperse out in one day!
* Natural methane seeps off the Santa Barbara County coast produce on
average 50% of all methane in the county's air.
* Drilling at Platform Holly has lowered underground/undersea reserve
pressure and has lessened natural seeps, but only immediately around the
platform ( within a couple hundred yards ). Only verifiable testing so far?
* Half of the methane from natural seeps in our channel is absorbed by the
sea: only half gets into the air.
* One major seep did not appear until 2005 offshore Goleta, long after
derek drilling off shore started.
* The Summerland Oil Field became the site of the world’s first offshore
oil drilling in the 1890s via wells on piers. Most, maybe all, of its wells
were not properly capped. These Legacy Wells foul the beaches and kelp beds
on a regular basis.
* Wave action affects the amount and timing of seeps, and eddies effect
the dispersement: both to a great degree. Ellwood in Goleta may have some
later Legacy Well seepage?
* Current amounts of oil seeped from local Legacy Wells, is minimal,
compared to the natural seeps, but it is immediately dispersed by the tides
and the waves onto the shore and into kelp beds.
* The State Lands Commission is currently trying to re-cap the Becker Well
in Summerland, but it is already known over 200 other improperly capped
legacy wells exist elsewhere in state waters.
* Senate Bill 900, which addresses this issue of these legacy coastal
wells, will be heard by the Senate Natural Resources and Water Commission on
March 29, 2016.
