<http://schema.org/description>
"&lt;p&gt;Santa Barbara County is under threat of a massive increase in oil production made possible through dangerous and polluting \"enhanced\" extraction techniques.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Oil companies have identified thousands upon thousands of potential drill locations across our region -- from Santa Maria to Carpinteria.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;This is not the conventional oil that we've been drilling for a hundred years. The only way to extract this oil is through the use of extreme techniques including:&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Fracking: &lt;/strong&gt;This technique involves injecting water, sand and chemicals underground to break up rock and extract oil and gas. The practice has been halted or banned in 12 states due to water contamination issues, earthquakes and other problems. People near fracking have been able to light their water on fire.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Acidization:&amp;nbsp;&lt;/strong&gt;This is similar to fracking, but even worse in that it adds hydrochloric and hydrofloric acid to the toxic mix. The acid is used to melt the rock to extract the oil and gas. According to the Centers for Disease Control, hydrofloric acid is the most toxic chemical in industrial use. The CDC lists it as a potential chemical weapon.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Steam Injection:&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;nbsp; This is&lt;span&gt;&amp;nbsp;the most greenhouse gas-intensive form of oil production in the world because it involves steam-heating oil to 500 degrees to get it out of the ground. Oil under this kind of pressure can go in unexpected directions. A spill in Cold Lake, Canada has been going for 9 months, dumping hundreds of thousands of gallons of oil and causing vast groundwater contamination. In one Santa Maria oil field, there have been 94 oil \"seeps\". Sometimes it comes up in geysers that shoot 50 feet in the air. In one case in Kern, an oil worker was sucked into the ground and boiled alive. In another case the polluted \"produced\" water that comes back from drilling leached into groundwater and killed millions of dollars of almond orchards.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.sbcountywaterguardians.org/>