Planners approve permit for PXP

Plains Exploration and Production Co., which owns the Arroyo Grande Oil Field in Price Canyon, is another step closer in its quest to begin producing oil more quickly and efficiently at the site.

With a 4-1 vote Thursday, the San Luis Obispo County Planning Commission approved a conditional-use permit allowing the company to construct a reverse-

osmosis water-treatment plant that will help boost production at the oil field.

Commissioner Sarah Christie was the lone dissenter in the vote, which came after a 2ð-hour public hearing that focused mostly on issues associated with discharge of treated water into Pismo Creek.

Christie said she wanted to support the proposal, but couldn't because her fellow commissioners wouldn't agree to add truck impact fees to the project or require the company to conserve more open space at the site.

“I'm at loss why there's not more support for that,” she said prior to casting her ‘no' vote.

Even with county approval in hand, PXP still has six more permits to acquire before beginning construction on the facility and discharging water into Pismo Creek.

The most stringent permit necessary to proceed will be a discharge permit from the Regional Water Quality Control Board that will provide “key mitigation measures” to deal with water-quality issues.

“We still have a ways to go,” Steve Rusch, a PXP vice president, told the commissioners. “(But) we feel we have a fully mitigated project.”

Some audience members expressed concern that the discharge could increase creek flow levels such that flooding would occur downstream near Cypress and Addie streets in downtown Pismo Beach.

Effie McDermott, who owns property next to the creek mouth, urged the commission to not approve the project for that reason and the potential for erosion downstream.

“We need those fore dunes for protection,” McDermott said about the small sand hills that form at the mouth of the creek, acting as a barrier between nearby property and the waterway.

The fore dunes can get washed away during large storms when water levels in the creek increase and the water flows faster.

As mitigation, the commissioners will require that PXP consult with the city of Pismo Beach to determine a flow level that if ever reached would stop discharge to prevent potential downstream flooding. PXP also will be required to install a stream gauge somewhere in the creek to measure flows.

The reverse-osmosis water-treatment facility will help PXP boost daily production of marketable crude oil at the Arroyo Grande Oil Field, according to county planning staff.

Oil currently is extracted from the site using steam injection wells. When the oil is pulled out of the ground, so is water, which is then reinjected back into the earth, slowing down the recovery process.

The water treatment facility will allow PXP to skip the re-injection process, treating the water at the plant and then discharging it. The company plans to increase production at the oil field from 1,850 barrels to 5,000 barrels a day over the next 10 years.

May 9, 2008