Fillmore Works Site History
The former Pacific Coast Pipeline (PCPL) site, also known as Fillmore Works, is located on the eastern border of the City of Fillmore and has been part of the local landscape for nearly a century. Watch a video on the site history in English or Spanish. Read a booklet on the site’s history, titled “Oil and Refining: Part of Fillmore’s Natural and Patriotic History” in English or Spanish. From 1915 to 1950 the facility operated as a refinery and after refining operations ended in 1950, it continued as a crude oil pumping station. All site operations ended in 2002 and Chevron finished restoring the site for future re use in 2014.
We thank the Fillmore Historical Museum for its assistance with photos and information about the site history, including its contribution to the memoir “Growing Up at the Refinery,” and we offer a timeline of some of the site’s milestones.
1915
The “Ventura Refinery” begins operations.
1924
Ventura Refinery Fillmore
1928
Texaco acquires and renames refinery “Fillmore Works”
1931
1950
Refinery shut down.
1951
Infrastructure dismantled, leaving eight above-ground storage tanks for continued operation as a crude oil pump station.
1953
Facility renamed Pacific Coast Pipeline.
1969
Residential development increases near site
1980
Regional Water Quality Control Board requests environmental study.
1983
Texaco completes environmental study and finds contaminated soil and groundwater.
1986
Texaco excavates 38,000 tons of waste materials and contaminated soil from the site.
1989
EPA places the site on superfund list
1992
EPA directs groundwater cleanup plan; inital efforts reduce benzene concentrations in groundwater by 90%
2001
Chevron Corporation merges with Texaco