Summerland Oil Cleanup Begins

Just in time for Election Day, comes the moment we’ve been long waiting for, the capping of the two worst oil wells leaking off Summerland Beach: Treadwell & NorthStar.

On November 1, 2020, THE DANNY C commercial dive workboat, captained by Danny Castagnola, will arrive off Summerland, near Treadwell, a leaking well 300 feet offshore. After the workboat anchors, commercial divers hired by InterAct, of Ventura, under contract with the California State Lands Commission (SLC), will begin working with jetting tools to fully expose the wellhead for capping.

On November 8th or 9th, the Curtin Barge from Long Beach will arrive, loaded with all equipment necessary to cap the leaking well. Workers will place pipe pile over the wellhead and then drive the pipe into the ocean floor and right up to impermeable bedrock to encapsulate the wellhead. Each pipe pile will be cleaned out and pumped full of cement, which will act as a barrier to migration of hydrocarbons. The final step will be the welding of a steel plate on the top of the pipe pile, a secondary barrier to hydrocarbon migration.

The crews will then move closer to the beach, to NorthStar, 130 feet offshore, and repeat the process to cap that well. According to SLC Chief of External Affairs, the entire operation should take up to two weeks.

Heal the Ocean Advisory Board member Harry Rabin of On the Wave Research div., has been working closely with the InterAct engineers Mike Giuliani and Eric Kroh to map out the operation, with Harry’s topside and underwater pictures helping to locate the well infrastructure beneath the Summerland sand.

Mike Giuilani, Harry Rabin & Eric Kroh