Judge rules against Project Indian oil site approval

A Monterey County judge this week halted the Project Indian oil development site near Coalinga while citing a lacking environmental review from local officials, according to an announcement from the Center for Biological Diversity, which sued San Benito County.
The judge ruled that the county board failed to properly weigh environmental impacts in an environmental impact review when supervisors in June 2013 approved the Project Indian well site.
“The court agreed that San Benito County unlawfully failed to consider development of the oil field beyond the initial 15 ‘pilot’ wells in the challenged approval as required by the California Environmental Quality Act. The court also found that the county failed to properly analyze the  huge water usage, water pollution risks, greenhouse gas emissions, and threats to the California condor – even from the initial 15 well approval,” according to the statement.
The ruling comes in response to the suit from the Center for Biological Diversity, which argues that the project site drains into the Salinas River and could impact the endangered California condor.
Project Indian uses cyclic steam injections to extract oil. It is among the extraction methods targeted by San Benito Rising on a November ballot initiative asking voters to ban certain types of practices, including fracking.
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