WHAT’S NEXT? Out with the old, in with the NEW. HALLELUJAH.

Our Board of Supervisors has for the past 10 years refused to comply with enforcing health and safety codes at the Arroyo Grande Oil Field. They are defying local, State and Federal Codes that mandate an approved Underground Injection Control Class I certification of toxic waste disposal wells before they start extracting and disposing of toxic waste into underground aquifers, streams and subterranean soil.  

The Board didn’t seem overly concerned about the community’s water supply that until this year was on emergency drought restrictions. Miraculously AGOF escaped the restrictions and was free to use 1.5 million gallons of fresh water a day to concoct a toxic soup for extraction of asphalt grade crude.   

This is a public comment I made to the Board of Supervisors about this issue.  

This is the shirt I wore. You state your name before you begin. Public speaking is not always fun. This time it was.   

Who am I? I am woman. Jean’ne Blackwell, Hear me roar! (That got a laugh. They thought I was kidding.)

“To summarize the complaint, FOR THE RECORD, THAT I sent to you on Sept 23, 2021, giving you one last chance to do the right thing and order a cease and desist on the unlicensed, illegal AGOF (Arroyo Grande Oil Field) operation or I was going to file a formal complaint with the Department of justice.   

YOU FAILED TO RESPOND. SO LET ME just ASK YOU for the record.  

What the heck are you doing?  You exempted Sentinel from The California Environmental Quality Act?  An act that ensures no harm will come to the environment in the pursuit of profits.  Are you confident that Sentinel is clean as a whistle and could pass the test?  Or are you sure they couldn’t and ARE saving them the expense of making an application you know they are going to fail?  

That is like a hospital saying we are not going to bother with sterilizing our equipment because it is not cost effective.  

And what is up with no public hearings on the Conditional Use Permit?  And don’t give me Covid as an excuse to forge ahead without a public hearing. You allowed the AGOF to operate without licenses and permits for years, all in violations of the conditions precedent to operation before Covid was even an issue.   

Is the reason you didn’t hold any hearings was because you knew that without the proper permits and licenses Sentinel could never legally get permission to dump poly, moly. ethyl, methyl, bad shift into our backyard?  

And don’t give me the lame excuse that an aquifer exemption is a permit exemption. One does not preclude the other. Title 40 Section 144.11 of THE Code of Federal Regulations unequivocally states that “Any underground injection, WITHOUT A PERMIT is prohibited…. The construction of any well required to have a permit is prohibited until the permit has been issued. NO PERMITS HAVE BEEN ISSUED TO THE ARROYO GRANDE OIL FIELD.  

The Arroyo Grande Oil field is required to have a Class I UIC permit IN COMPLIANCE WITH THE RESOURCE CONSERVATION AND RECOVERY ACT. PERIOD. STATE AND FEDERAL AGENCIES HAVE all officially CITED THE AGOF AS NON-COMPLIANT.  

There is a flair tower in that Conditional Use Permit. Do you think for one minute that would pass air quality control codes? You knew it wouldn’t and you didn’t care.  

You think you have a right to treat us like second-class citizens?  Listen up!   Your willful intent to allow illegal and unlawful activity at the Arroyo Grande Oil Field most assuredly jeopardized, vandalized and terrorized every aspect of our right to the peaceful and quiet enjoyment of our environment.  You are going to make it right.  

WE ARE OPERATING UNDER 2 different SET OF RULES. Rules that you opt to enforce and rules that you opt out of enforcing. Opting out is not an option.  

If a citizen tried to build a granny unit over their garage without proper permits, you are on them like a swarm of hornets.   

Yet the AGOF can build a flair tower that is going to emit toxic, climate alternating chemicals into the air without so much as a mother may I.  

A citizen dumps a can of used oil down a storm drain and there are codes that could put them behind bars but an oil company that has greased the right palms get special preferential treatment akin to royalty.   

If a citizen forgets to register their vehicle in a timely manner there is a no mercy policy and one is penalized, criminalized and car impounded in short order no questions asked.  

But a monster behemoth oil company can escape any and all registering and licensing fees and permits with the help and assistance of official governing bodies that have befriended and anointed them with special dispensations.  

Who speaks for the kids, elderly, students, business, trees, water, animals, who are all totally reliant and dependent on elected officials doing their job and doing it right enforcing water and air, health and safety codes?   

EVERY PERSON WHO CARES ABOUT EVERY LIVING BEING and who BELIEVES WE ALL HAVE A RIGHT TO BE TREATED WITH RESPECT, AS PERSONS WITH INHERENT, INTRINSIC, VALUE AND WORTH ENTITLED TO EQUAL PROTECTION AND CLEAN AIR, WATER AND SOIL IN PERPETUITY.  

You are letting Sentinel get away with murder.  

This complaint was sent to the Department of Justice AS PROMISED citing you, the San Luis Obispo County Board of Supervisor, with criminal trespass on our CONSTITUTIONAL rights to be safe and secure in our environment. We are asking for your resignation pending criminal charges forthcoming”
(This got a laugh. They thought I was kidding)

_______________________________________________________  

note: I felt we had a right to demand their resignation for failing to do their job and keep us safe. If not us, then who? 

I did some grammar and spell changes to the original speech before I posted this.  

I wrote to all the agencies and person’s that claimed to have jurisdiction over the enforcement of Health and Safety Codes, even the ones that cited the AGOF for non-compliance, CalGEM aka DOGGER, CAL EPA.  

Facts and evidence were provided. One Department responded to our petition signed by hundreds of local residents to shut down the illegal hazardous waste disposal dumping by Sentinel in San Luis Obispo County. “It’s not our job to enforce violations of State Laws and Codes.” California State Attorney General. Really? Whose job, is it?   

I filed 3 official Grand Jury complaints citing proof and evidence that BofS failed to enforce local health and safety codes at the AGOF. No action was taken. District attorney can refuse to indict even if the Grand Jury finds cause. Hummmmm  

This was not a one woman show. This was a community voicing their concerns and demands. I had letters from 4 local municipalities and a petition with 80,000 signatures, calling for a cease and desist at the AGOF until it was proven a safe and harmless operation. Remember it is not our job to prove it is harmful.  The burden of proof is entirely on the applicant to prove it is certifiably safe and meets all safety and health standards and codes. That never happened at the AGOF. Why?  

In closing I would just like to say there are far less devastating, deadly, irreversible and irreparable disasters when safety and health codes are followed and enforced. That’s why we have them and why it is so important to enforce them. They should be called Prevention Codes. 

New SLO Board of Supervisors on the job as of Jan. 2023. About to witness what a difference one honest to goodness person can make.  

We have 2 Ohio Train Wrecks waiting to happen in San Luis Obispo, CA

We are sitting amid 2 disasters waiting to happen. The Arroyo Grande Oil Fields and Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant. They are an Ohio train wreck in the making.

Elected officials doing their job keeping us safe is the single most obvious guarantee and way of preventing disasters. Safe means protected from or not exposed to danger or risk; not likely to be harmed. Clean air, water and soil is the recipe for a safe, happy, healthy living environment.

You can’t un-poison a well or bring someone back to life. No water for livestock, crops, drinking, no clean air to breathe no land to grow food, walk or play on is a death sentence. One toxic train wreck can compromise an entire community’s well being poisoning the water, air and soil. A death sentence.

Back in the day poisoning a water source was treated as a murderous act and a hanging offense. Water is life. No ifs, ands or buts. Anyone trying to ensure their own success by poisoning the water source was guaranteed to pay the ultimate price, which was supposed to be a deterrent, the death penalty. That was the Code of the West. Everyone knew the Code and the consequences for breaking the Code.

That didn’t prevent it entirely, but it did give the victims of an irreversible and irreparable act of violence some satisfaction and solace to know the murderers were going to pay for their crime and never be able to do harm again. The code has changed and so has the unprecedented rise in deadly acts of terrorism and violence. Today’s corporate entities like PG&E can be convicted of killing 84 people in a wildfire they caused, and the company will be fined millions of dollars, but no one will go to jail.

Today’s murderers are not only protected from consequences for poisoning air, water and soil, they are given priority favorite ‘nation’ status, guaranteeing they will survive and thrive unencumbered and in perpetuity at the expense of nature’s divine, innate, inherent right to be free from the ‘rights’ of mass murderers to indiscriminately kill at will. We are one with nature. What happens to nature happens to us.

The Ohio train wreck is just one of countless intentional money saving policies condoned by elected officials that prioritize profit over public safety. A fatal flaw in this “new’ code of conduct, is that when people’s lives and our quintessential lifelines, air, water, soil, are disrupted and destroyed it is of no consequence.

Industry is immune from criminal charges that would impose a life sentence of incarceration on a convicted felon to prevent a repeat of the crimes. But because industry is a fictitious person that cannot be apprehended or confined the only cure for acts of death and destruction inflicted by a for-profit business is, monetary. Criminal.

How much is a life worth? It is priceless. And our politicians know this and that should trigger abundant caution and microscopic surveillance of industrial operations to ensure the prevention of catastrophic accidents. This train wreck was totally preventable. Public safety and health Codes were indisputably abandoned by local, State and Federal officials to simply accommodate industries’ profit margin. Plain and simple. Criminal.

Who oversees enforcement of Health and Safety codes? The industry that is subject to it. It’s called self-regulation and it is a full-on certifiable disaster. As it now stands our elected officials opted to put the industry in charge of themselves. That was never a lawful option. Empowering self-regulation to known convicted criminals with a history of ‘accidents’, errors and intentional wrongdoing resulting in death is a criminal act of aiding and abetting. This Ohio train wreck is just the tip of the iceberg on how efficient and effective self-regulated policy works. It doesn’t. In every case where safety rules and regulations have been ignored, irreversible and irreparable harm has resulted.

Truth be told, regulated industry cannot be held responsible for doing what their supervisors (our elected officials) give them permission to do. It’s called a loophole and loopholes are flaws that need to be fixed before they are enforced. No motive or incentive to fix this crime. The ones benefiting are the ones in charge of fixing it.

Our elected officials are the key component that has enabled this travesty to become the debtonator of our existence. Out of total disregard for our well-being and in the interest of preserving and encouraging profits for their vested interest, safety issues for the common good are conveniently ignored out of existence. Vested interests are perpetrated under the color of office and implemented by abuse of power shrouded in a betrayal of a sacred trust. A betrayal of trust is the worst offense an elected official can commit and warrants the maximum punishment. Life in prison.

Filing criminal charges against elected officials for felony trespass on our right to unencumbered representation and felony manslaughter for willful and intentional neglect of their duties and responsibilities that resulted in death and irreversible harm, is our job and priority as law abiding citizens. There is no excuse for this wanton miscarriage of justice by our lawmakers. They know what they are doing. It is their job to know. And it is criminal behavior at its best.

I think a few court cases convicting elected officials on these grounds will soon clear up and cure the crime and corruption that has infiltrated our core values and principles. When there are obvious, imminent and swift consequences for wrongdoing guaranteeing they will pay for their crimes, things will change real fast.

We can change the world by changing how we do business with our elected officials in our own back yard.

The Arroyo Grande Oil Field is operating without local, State and Federal health and safety code permits in violation of the Underground Injection Control Class I permit to safely dump toxic forever chemicals into our backyard. Sentinel Peak Resources, LLC is dumping toxic, known to cause cancer chemicals, at will into our local underground aquifers, creeks and subterranean soil. We have no idea of what is being dumped or where because our elected officials, SLO County Board of Supervisors, have intentionally allowed the disposal of toxic waste into our underground aquifers without so much as a mother may I for the past 20 years.

A UIC permit is certification by a 3rd party that an operation is in compliance with the very strict and uncompromising standards of the safety and health code.

This certificate is our ONE and ONLY official trustworthy guarantee of our safety and well-being. Without it we are at the mercy of a corrupt, bought and paid for criminal syndicate. Is this an Ohio train Wreck mentality? Oh Yes.

What is the harm in requiring the operators to provide the mandatory UIC Class I waste disposal Permit? The harm is if Sentinel failed to pass the UIC test it would expose and prove beyond a reasonable doubt an organized, criminal partnership between the lead agency officials, BoS, and Sentinel with the intent to trick and deceive the public about the true condition of the toxic waste. That deceit puts every man, woman and child’s life in SLO county and beyond in danger.

And Diablo Canyon is the same issue, and the results will be the same. Give them an inch and they will take a foot. It is simple. The Deal was by 2024/2025 shut down – no ifs, ands or buts. PG&E has known since 2009 that this day was coming. No excuses. They cannot be trusted. They are convicted criminals. PG&E pleaded guilty to the deaths of 84 people in a wildfire they caused.

There is a good faith condition in every contract. PG&E has proven they cannot be trusted and has violated the good faith doctrine by asking for an extension because they had no intention of honoring the contract.

We are living on borrowed time as it is. Diablo sits within striking distance of the most active earthquake fault in the world. And all the experts have said shut it down as fast as you can without delay because there is no recovery protocol that will restore the environment back to a safe, harmless and livable site in our lifetime. Criminal.

The total and absolute careless, reckless disregard for our safety and well-being by entertaining an extension proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that elected officials duty bound to use abundant caution and care for our safety, consider and regard all human life as collateral damage in the ultimate pursuit and quest for profit for a chosen few at the expense of an entire community. Criminal.

Money cannot fix this. In every case money has not stopped the train wrecks and oil spills, air pollution, fires, that threaten all life on earth. It is time that we do something different to have a different result that will ensure it never happens again.

We have the legal, lawful right to make a criminal case against captured politicians that love themselves and their power and influence more than the community that elected them.

It’s about holding our elected officials first and foremost accountable for their actions and setting an example of the consequences for breach of trust and abuse of power. A Code of ethics that transcends man-made laws. Holding our elected officials accountable is our sworn sacred duty as human beings and now is the time. It is a Do or Die call to action.

Saving grace here in San Luis Obispo County is we have a changing of the guard with a newly elected Board of Supervisors. In the coming weeks I will be contacting the Board and requesting on behalf of all the citizens and residents of San Luis Obispo County that the Board immediately rescind the illegal and unlawful conditional use permit until and when the conditions precedent to approving the CUP are met. Until and when the UIC class 1 permit is signed, sealed and delivered to the Board the Board is criminally liable for allowing the illegal disposal of uncertified toxic chemicals into the unincorporated areas of San Luis Obispo County. Criminal.

If anyone would like to join me I will be glad to make the complaint available for you to sign and provide the contact info for your supervisor.

Together, as one, we will change how we do business with our elected officials and that changes everything for the better.