Several nonprofit and environmental advocacy groups have filed two separate lawsuits on Tuesday against the California Office of the State Fire Marshal (OSFM) for waiving safety rules for the oil pipeline that ruptured in 2015 and released about 450,000 gallons of oil near Refugio State Beach, one of the worst oil spills in California history.
The lawsuits allege the state office granted the waivers that allows the 120-mile pipeline to operate without effective protection against corrosion, which was the cause of the 2015 spill. The lawsuits state that OSFM approved the waivers at the end of last year without properly considering the risks of operating the corrosion-prone pipeline and without conducting an environmental review or allowing for public input as required by state and federal law.
One lawsuit was filed on behalf of The Center for Biological Diversity and Wishtoyo Foundation while a separate lawsuit was filed on behalf of the Environmental Defense Center (EDC), the Sierra Club, Get Oil Out! (GOO), the Santa Barbara County Action Network (SBCAN), and Santa Barbara Channelkeeper. Both were filed in Superior Court in Santa Barbara County…