WHAT TO DO WITH
HOLLY-
Is vibrant marine life on an abandoned oil rig enough to forget decades of spilling and drilling and destruction?
Holly's owner ExxonMobil might be able to leave the platform partially in the water, a prospect that dismays those who have witnessed the fossil fuel industry's toll on Santa Barbara's environment. But others overlook a past marred by oil spills and ecological devastation, instead focusing on the thriving reef below Holly.
The fate of the platform now rests on an upcoming state decision.
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Platform Holly has sat motionless for nearly a decade, since an oil spill in 2015 sent the rig straight out of drilling and into decommissioning. Now, removal of the 58-year-old rig is imminent, unless a fish-filled reef on its steel base can vouch for a second chance from the state.
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California's lands commission will determine an outcome for Holly within the next few years — whether it be complete or partial removal, or simply keeping the rig in place.
“It’s very controversial,” said Linda Krop, Chief Counsel at Santa Barbara’s Environmental Defense Center. “The State Lands Commission will decide what the best option is from an environmental point of view, but it’s up in the air.”
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Typically, oil companies must follow their contractual promise to dismantle a rig when operations finish.
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“That’s what they initially agreed to do when they bought those leases and put the platforms in,” Krop said. “They were going to have to remove them completely and clean up after the marine environment.”
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But Holly's in a different position than the other oil rigs offshore from Santa Barbara County. It’s only two miles off the coast, which means that — unlike other platforms farther out in federal waters — California controls Holly.
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“It’s in state waters,” Krop said. “And it’s unique because there is no real owner or operator anymore.”
Platform Holly stands alone in the 3-mile stretch of state jurisdiction off the coast of Santa Barbara.
However, California is not fiscally responsible for Holly's removal. The original owner, ExxonMobil, is “on the hook” for covering costs of the platform, whether it be blowing and towing it out or considering a reef alternative, Krop said.
Now that the state is nearly finished with decommissioning Holly, it’s time for California to decide the destiny of the platform.
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The base of Holly is brimming with life, but the fossil fuel industry’s claim that the rig provides added value is a red flag for environmentalists.
“The oil industry says these platforms are a wonderful benefit to the marine environment,” Krop said. “They’re a steel structure that has sea life around it but that doesn’t make them habitat in scientific use of the term.”
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And it’s unnecessary to keep the rig when the Santa Barbara Channel has an abundance of naturally occurring reefs, said marine ecologist Hunter Lenihan.
“They get lots of larvae settling on them and animals grow on them, and they become quite productive,” said Lenihan, who conducts research for the UCSB Bren School of Environmental Science & Management. “But then you have all the natural reefs in that whole region that are doing well.”
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For those who have seen Santa Barbara flooded with oil, the thought of keeping Holly is sickening, and the push for an artificial reef is no more than a loophole for ExxonMobil.
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“I think a lot of our concern started in 1969, when I was a kid and there was a massive oil spill in Santa Barbara,” Lenihan said. “There's a lot of history here about oil and the dangers of oil because people have experienced it here.”
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If the community desires a reef, it should be installed independently of the rig, Lenihan said.
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“There’s plenty of ways we can make artificial reefs if you decide to make artificial reefs, but not with a giant platform like that,” he said.
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“The idea is we're going to allow a change in the way we're managing the oil industry,” said Lenihan, who is concerned that a Rigs-to-Reefs-style decision at Holly will result in a widespread failure to hold oil companies accountable. “If we're going to let this precedent go, that has implications for others.”
But Lenihan’s stance is not shared by all — even those who also want the oil industry gone.
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Marine ecosystem engineer Chris Goldblatt supports a transition that will save sea life on Holly, but not because he wants to protect the pockets of ExxonMobil.
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“I would make that judgment based on what’s best for the ocean, as an ocean conservationist,” said Goldblatt, founder of Santa Barbara’s Fish Reef Project.
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He hopes that the state will find a way to make a transition of Holly work.
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“Leave the shell mound and the bottom part so the rock fish can live and the animals in the shell mound can live,” Goldblatt said. “And then the top part, find a way to keep that life alive. It’s that top part that’s got the good stuff on it.”
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Like others who want to protect the reef, Goldblatt is bothered by the possibility of losing the community of sea life around Holly.
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“If it's removed and all of that marine life is killed and it’s recycled,” Goldblatt said of the platform. “Our local ecosystem is now deprived of all that life.”
"Decommissioning is when biological science, engineering, and people’s deep-held philosophies all come together."
- Milton Love
Santa Barbara is now divided over the matter of Holly.
“It’s really unpredictable with every single person,” said Milton Love, who studies biology on California’s oil rigs. “It’s more their belief systems.”
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“Most environmental groups fall on the side of removing them,” Love said, as even those who recognize sea life on Holly stress that invasive species inhabit the platform, too.
Environmentalists fall on both sides of the fight to keep or kill Holly.
The state must make a call on Holly now that the platform is fully decommissioned, and it won’t be simple.
“This time, there will be a fairly laborious process where a report is going to be issued. It's a document that says, here's what we know, here are the possible effects of leaving part of the platform there or removing it all,” Love said.
But there’s no telling how it will go.
​“What the state is going to do is unknown,” said Love, who joins the rest of Santa Barbara in awaiting a decision about Holly.
“For now, Holly is just sitting there,” Love said. “Being a reef in the same way it's been a reef since they put it in the water.”
Some say that the rig has caused enough damage already,
and a reef doesn't make up for decades of damage.
Team Holly has to
GO
Hunter Lenihan
UC Santa Barbara Marine Science Institute
“They should remove them completely. They're a ghastly sign of doing risky things in the environment.”
Carla Frisk
Get Out Oil! Organization
“Our preference would be for it to look like it never existed. It's time to get rid of it.”
Gail Osherenko
League of Women Voters
“The best thing is for oil companies to remove everything including the debris mounds.”
THE OPTIONS
Blow it. Tow it. Topple it. Take part off. Or just leave it be.
Credit: Jevin Liu
01
Full Removal
Removing the rig typically requires explosives, but there may be alternative options for removal, said Linda Krop. The dismantled rig must be towed out on a barge.
02
Partial Removal
There are different ways to go about a reef transformation, but it would most likely require removing the top 85 feet below the waterline for navigational safety, according to Krop.
03
Leave As Is
Leaving the platform would require ongoing maintenance, yet it would allow sea life to flourish, unbothered.
THE SHELL MOUNDS
Creating habitat, holding harm
Mollusk shells that grow on the base of oil rigs fall off and collect on the ocean floor.
Over 50 years of Holly, mussels have formed large, several-meter-thick piles that harbor shrimp, octopuses, crabs, and other sea floor fish.
“The shells break off and make a big mound down there,” said marine ecosystem engineer Chris Goldblatt. “There's a lot of animals that live in that mound.”
But they also hold toxic chemicals and heavy metals.
“They were starting to be covered with mud and contained a lot of junk like pipeline pieces, and toxic levels of chemicals and heavy metals and things that have been discharged from the platform,” said environmental lawyer Linda Krop.
For team get-out-Holly, the pollutants found in shell mounds are just another reason for taking out the platform.
“The only way that gets cleaned up is if the platform is fully removed,” said Krop, naming PCBs and arsenic as harmful contaminants that have fallen down from the platform.
But completely removing Holly could free all of the contaminates out into the water.
“If you were to scrap that mound off, who knows what’s underneath it,” Goldblatt said. “It may be capping things that you don’t want exposed.”
For Goldblatt, partial removal of Holly is best for leaving the mounds undisturbed.
“Find a way to leave the shell mound and the bottom part so the animals can live,” he said.