In the late 1970s, production again dropped, and Marathon commenced another waterflood project, this time followed closely by a pattern polymer flood.

A common secondary method is "waterflood" or injection of water into the reservoir to increase pressure and force the oil to the drilled shaft or "wellbore."

Often called conventional heavy oil, this low-density oil can be recovered by conventional drilling techniques or by waterflood, a technique of injecting water into the reservoir to increase pressure, thus forcing the oil toward the well bore.

In interwell tests, the tracer is injected at one well along with the carrier fluid (water in a waterflood or gas in a gasflood) and detected at a producing well after some period of time, which can be anything from days to years.

In spite of the methodical early development of the field, the peak production did not occur until 1959, after the waterflood in the Sespe zone had been running for three years, and four years after the discovery of the productive Bridge zone north of the Oak Ridge Fault.