Response to letter from Lisa Palmer of Crystal Energy
You can say what you will, but the fact of the matter is Veneco still owns “Grace” and Crystal is merely leasing the facility. You say you intend to exercise your option to purchase it, but we won’t believe it until we see it. How can we be assured that you will follow through when you have been publicly criticized for late payments due to a lack of financial backing in the past? Regardless of what transaction may transpire between you and Veneco, we have to consider that Veneco, which still at this point, retains the ownership rights to “Grace,” have an extensive recorded history of safety and environmental violations.
Dating as far back as 1992, Platform Grace incurred over $8 million in fines for 65 violations of the Clean Water Act. The facility has also been cited for illegal discharges and in 1994, over $1 million was paid for infractions involving a safety valve that did not meet Mineral Management Service requirements. It’s been so bad that Grace was officially closed in 1997. Also, recently in October of 2003, Veneco had to pay a $10,000 fine to settle air pollution violations in the Beverly Hills area. State and local authorities repeatedly cited the Veneco Corporation for releases of deadly hydrogen sulfide gas at its Goleta platform in 1998-99.
Obviously Veneco has demonstrated an extreme reckless disregard and irresponsibility in maintaining and operating its facilities. As of today, they still own “Grace” so how are we to be certain that things will change when and even IF Crystal purchases the facility? As far as we know, “Grace” still belongs to Veneco and with nothing shown to dispute Veneco’s hazardous behaviors or prove that you will mend these practices, we have no choice but to deem the Crystal Energy project proposal a bad idea for our community.
Bob Hattoy, Santa Monica
Fish and Game Commission