Planning chief: Most of county unaffected by all-out petroleum ban

A ballot initiative would ban all petroleum activities in certain areas, but it appears that particular portion of the proposal would affect less than 10 percent of county land, the top local planning official said this week.
San Benito Rising is a local group proposing the outright ban against hydraulic fracturing and other forms of high-intensity extraction such as steam injections used at an often debated oil field near Bitterwater. Supporters and detractors have spent months arguing over the impacts of fracking, which involves the use of sand, chemicals and water to unearth natural gas. The measure’s opponents, though, have focused much of their attention on the initiative’s proposed ban against all petroleum activities within certain planning zones, while arguing it would affect a significant portion of rural San Benito County.
Those zones – Rural, Rural Transitional, Rural Residential, Rural Urban, and Sphere of Influence Rural/Urban – mostly include areas surrounding the cities, said Byron Turner, interim planning director.
“I’d say we’re talking less than 10 percent of the county that’s affected with the total restriction,” Turner said.
The ban against all oil activities – in what Turner called “higher density” county areas – is part of the proposal for a countywide ban against fracking and other methods of getting petroleum from the ground.
One of those ways, steam injections, is used at the Project Indian site near Bitterwater.
Ojai-based Citadel Exploration owns the 700-acre project and its CEO, Armen Nahabedian, has emphasized that steam injections have nothing to do with fracking, calling the method “benign” in comparison. He is also among the measure’s opponents, however, who have warned officials about the far-reaching nature of the all-out petroleum restriction.
Citadel Exploration officials did not respond to interview requests for this story.
One of the initiative supporters said it is San Benito Rising’s job to educate the public about details such as the zoning.
“There are a lot of misconceptions,” said Larry Rebecchi from San Benito Rising.  
Andy Hsia-Coron, another leader in the San Benito Rising group, said there was a false understanding of the zoning designations among initiative opponents.
“They came to the conclusion there are two types of land, urban land and rural land,” he said.
While there is no current discretion in a county oil and gas ordinance about the types of extraction used, there are also currently no geographic restrictions outside of the cities.
“An oil well in any zone requires a use permit,” Turner said. “There’s a public process regardless of where it’s located.”