S.D., Oceanside Say No to Offshore Oil Drilling

Ballot measures that would ban construction of pipelines or refineries in San Diego and Oceanside passed easily Tuesday, adding to the tidal wave of opposition to offshore oil drilling in local waters.

Passage raised the spirits of environmentalists and those officials in the two cities who had supported the anti-drilling measures.

“It’s a strong expression of the people that shows this community is opposed to offshore drilling,” said Cedric Garland, chairman of Save Our Shore, a special Sierra Club task force. “We hope members of Congress will listen to it.”

The identical measures--Proposition B in San Diego and Proposition S in Oceanside--proposed that it be made unlawful for either municipality to issue permits for the construction, operation or maintenance of pipelines, refineries and other facilities that would be needed for offshore oil drilling.

Since oil reserves off the county’s coast are considered to be minimal, the idea behind the propositions was to make offshore drilling more expensive, leading oil companies to decide against exploring the local waters under any federal leasing plan.

Supporters of the measures have pushed for other cities up and down the county’s coast to join the fight against offshore oil drilling by adopting similar measures. By taking a stand on the issue, they say, local residents can send a message to the federal government and the oil industry that offshore drilling will not be condoned.

Although offshore oil drilling has long been a front-burner issue in San Diego County, neither proposition attracted much attention during the election season. The issue had lost some of its urgency in recent months after congressional opponents of drilling pushed through legislation delaying federal lease sales of offshore tracts until February, 1989.

Moreover, the oil industry failed to mount any high-stakes opposition campaign, leading backers of the twin propositions to speculate that the oil firms figured there was little chance their position would prevail in either city.

Supporters of the propositions are eager to block offshore oil drilling because of concerns that spills could hurt the county’s multimillion-dollar tourism industry. In addition, they have argued that oil drilling could create navigational hazards for military and recreational vessels. Finally, they have expressed concerns that oil drilling could significantly degrade air and water quality.

Oil industry spokesmen have rejected those claims, insisting that offshore drilling technology has advanced significantly since the dramatic--and well-publicized--oil spills of years past.