Published July 18th, 2008
“Santa Barbara is sometimes referred to as the American Riviera. Her beautiful beaches, majestic mountains and colorful culture make Santa Barbara a premier resort destination.” (Quoted from the City of Santa Barbara home page: http://www.santabarbaraca.gov/Visitor/)
Do note that the first feature mentioned is the town’s “beautiful beaches.” Not mentioned is the fact that some of the most expensive real estate on the planet is located in and around the area.
No, I’m not a Santa Barbara realtor. However, Santa Barbara’s beauty and prosperity put the lie to Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi’s adamant position against offshore drilling for the life blood of American prosperity, oil. As for drilling in the waters off Santa Barbara, that would be tantamount to drilling under the Statue Of Liberty!
In 1969, Santa Barbara suffered from one of the worst oil spills to that date when a UNOCAL oil drilling platform six miles offshore had a “blowout” which resulted in an “environmental nightmare” and sent 200,000 gallons of oil goop toward the beaches. Dead seals and dolphins, choked by the goop, began to wash up. Seabirds of many a variety were covered in it and over 3600 succumbed. (http://www.geog.ucsb.edu/~jeff/sb_69oilspill/69oilspill_articles2.html) It seems to have been an horrendous event as seen in the photos on that UCSB website and the cleanup took almost 12 days.
The point of this retrospective? It took ...