Senate Bill No. 44 Oil Cleanup Act - Summerland (2017)

At the end of 2016, Senator Hannah-Beth Jackson’s SB 900 to clean up improperly capped “legacy wells” along the California Coast was vetoed at the last minute by Governor Jerry Brown.

Our intrepid Senator Jackson listened to his reasoning, then, in December 2016, Senator Jackson introduced SB 44 - the Coastal Hazard and Legacy Oil Gas Well Removal and Remediation Program. Like the earlier version, the new legislation made provisions for providing $2 million per year to cap leaking oil wells along the California coast. The bill created a program to address over 200 oil wells in California’s coastal water that have been improperly abandoned and leaked oil into the ocean. Heal the Ocean went to work to get this bill passed, hiring Aqueos Corporation in Planck Aerosystems to conduct an aerial survey that definitively showed four leaking wells off Summerland. The survey was positive proof that these leaks were not natural seepages.

SB 44 differs from the previous bill in that the funds would come from the already-appropriated budget within the State Lands Commission rather than the General Fund.