By Camas Frank

As San Luis Obispo County waits for a public hearing next month to determine the merits of a rail spur project designed to bring oil from all over the country into the Phillips 66 Refinery in Nipomo, another method of fossil fuel transit has taken center stage.
Cleanup crews are now working overtime to remove oil from the sand along a portion of soiled coastline near Refugio State Beach, in Santa Barbara County after an underground pipeline north of Highway 101 ruptured, May 19. According to initial reports, the leak went unnoticed until County employees working in the area discovered a slick flowing towards the beach.
Resources have since been called in from all over the State to combat the environmental disaster in protected habitat.
The U.S. Coast Guard, Environmental Protection Agency, Santa Barbara County Emergency Management, California Department of Fish and Wildlife, California Office of Spill Prevention and Response, and Plains All-American Pipeline representatives gave updates on the progress of containment through Memorial Day weekend.
Official estimates on May 23 said that approximately 105,000 gallons of oil escaped the line, with 21,000 gallons making it into the waters near the State Beach. More than 650 workers were officially brought in for clean up in hazardous material attire, but many more locals and volunteers jumped into action on the Wednesday after news broke.
On Thursday night in San Luis Obispo environmental activists already opposed to the Phillips 66 Refinery project organized a protest against both Plains for the pipeline spill and Phillips over the added dangers of moving the crude by rail.
The estimates of traffic moving through San Luis Obispo on the Union Pacific line if the project is approved would be 80-car trains, with approximately 2.4 million gallons on each trip. Previous opposition had been stirred by news of derailments and unattended trains causing infrastructure devastating explosions in recent memory, but the pipeline spill illustrated the scale of damage that 2.4 million gallons can do without a spark.
“The Refugio State Beach spill is a monumental environmental catastrophe for the central coast, with all the associated health risks,” said California Nurses Association, co-president Zenei Cortez in announcing the get together during and after the Thursday Night Farmer’s Market, May 23. “Nurses know firsthand that pollution manifests in illnesses for our patients, and we shudder to think that just one oil train tanker car carries 30,000 gallons. If the Phillips 66 rail yard is built, I fear for the health and safety of our patients and our communities. That’s why we must stop the oil trains from coming into this region.”