Los Angeles, CA – Today, Stand Together Against Neighborhood Drilling (STAND-LA) released a new poll that shows that Angelenos overwhelming support a policy that would end oil extraction within 1500 feet of homes, schools and hospitals. Of the over 1200 likely voters that were surveyed, 72% said they would support a 1,500 foot health and safety buffer around all active oil extraction operations.
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The poll, which was conducted by the polling firm Fairbank, Maslin, Maullin, Metz & Associates, asked respondents, “does [a] proposal to limit oil extraction in the City of Los Angeles to areas at least 1500 feet away from homes, schools, and hospitals sound like something you would support or oppose?”
 
Across all divisions of race, age, gender, income, or education level, Angelenos agree that ending oil drilling in neighborhoods is a common-sense solution. The poll had strongest support among people of color (76%) and low-income voters (81%), the two communities who are disproportionally impacted by neighborhood drilling.

In Los Angeles, home to the country’s largest urban oil field, over 580,000 Angelenos live within five blocks of an active oil or gas well. In some cases, oil and gas wells are located just 30 feet from occupied homes. Over 91% of people who live within a quarter mile of an active oil or gas wells are people of color.
 
“I continue to be amazed at how oil and gas operations receive more consideration and protection from our elected officials than the residents who live around them,” said Pastor Kelvin Sauls of the Holman United Methodist Church, located near the Murphy drill site in West Adams. “Neighborhood drilling remains a contradiction to the vision that city officials proclaim for all Angelenos—regardless of the color or their skin or the size of their income.”
 
When asked to explain why they support such a policy in their own words, 79% of respondents said that it was necessary to protect the health or safety of those living near urban oil sites.  Community groups that have been living with drilling in their neighborhoods were not surprised by the overwhelming support for a protective buffer.
 
“The widespread popularity of this policy proposal supports what we have been saying—that oil extraction should not be happening in anyone’s backyard,” said Sandy Navarro of People Not Pozos. “We know that the fumes released during oil and gas extraction cause headaches, upper respiratory illness, nausea, nosebleeds and a possible increase in cancer risk. There is absolutely no reason why these sites should be allowed to operate in densely populated residential neighborhoods.”
 
The recent Porter Ranch disaster was also top-of-mind with respondents. Eighty-two percent of people said they were somewhat or very concerned that the chemicals being leaked from oil and gas wells all over the city are similar, if not more dangerous, than the gas that was flooding out of the ruptured well in Porter Ranch.
 
 “Angelenos are living atop a very old network of oil and gas pipelines, through which oil companies have regularly pumped highly corrosive acids and chemicals for decades,” said Niki Wong, a community organizer with Redeemer Community Partnership. “Those of us who live near one of these oil and gas operations are just one accident away from another disaster. We can’t wait around to become the next Porter Ranch.”

Curt Below, Senior Vice President at FM3, emphasized just how strong these results are. “It’s very rare to see such strong public support around this kind of policy, especially across demographic and ideological lines. Every subset of Angelenos that we tested showed majority support for a 1500 ft. health and safety buffer, even after presented with a list of potential downsides to the the proposal.”

LOS ANGELES— Today, STAND-L.A. is calling on City Attorney Mike Feuer to open a criminal investigation of Freeport-McMoRan Oil & Gas after the company re-opened more than a dozen idle oil wells across the street from an elementary school in South LA. Community members are outraged at what they say was a calculated maneuver to side-step the law and avoid the costs of permanently plugging the wells. 
 
The Los Angeles Times reports local residents had urged the Los Angeles Fire Department to demand the company either restart or close the idle wells, hoping to leverage a section of city code that would force the wells’ closure in the interest of community health and safety. Instead, Freeport reactivated the idle wells, restoring the flow of natural gas just across the street from the Carson-Gore Academy of Environmental Studies, named after environmental leaders Rachel Carson and Al Gore. 
 
STAND-L.A., a coalition of community groups dedicated to protecting public health from neighborhood drilling, wants immediate action to be taken against the company for converting water injection wells into gas producing wells without obtaining necessary city approval. The group is calling on the City Attorney to investigate whether the company intentionally chose to circumvent the law and put the health of Angelenos at risk in order to avoid the costs of cleanup.
 
This would not be the first time Freeport-McMoRan prioritized company interests over the lives of local community members, often ignoring the law without any accountability.  “The City Attorney should immediately open a criminal investigation into whether FMOG failed to obtain the required permits," argued Richard Parks, President of the non-profit Redeemer Community Partnership. "Furthermore, the Los Angeles Fire Department should move quickly to protect taxpayers by enforcing city code that requires hundreds of idle wells to be either activated or shut down. For too long the city’s elected officials have supported oil interests over the public interest, trading public health and safety for corporate profits. We need our city leaders to move quickly to protect its residents, first and foremost.”
 
Freeport-McMoRan Oil & Gas faces growing debt amidst falling oil prices and could be stalling to avoid costs of plugging the wells. If the company waits for bankruptcy, the burden would fall on on local taxpayers to pay for the cleanup, similar to what could happen at the oil site located at Beverly Hills High School. Veneco, the company leasing the well from the Beverly Hills School District, may go bankrupt before it can fulfill a condition of its lease requiring the site be cleaned by March 2017. Should Veneco file for bankruptcy before that time, the school district would be left responsible for all costs associated with paying for the cleanup. Freeport-McMoRan could be taking a similar tack with its Washington Boulevard site, hoping to avoid paying up to $500,000 to permanently close each well.
 
“Clearly, the City of Los Angeles has little to no idea what is going on with idle oil and gas wells within its jurisdiction," continued Richard Parks. "Across Los Angeles, oil companies have failed to shut down oil wells that have been idle for decades. We call on the City to join with the community and take action to have them abandoned. At a time when analysts are questioning whether Freeport-McMoRan can avoid bankruptcy, the City's lapse of oversight potentially places taxpayers at financial risk of a costly cleanup.”
 
Beyond the legal implications of their actions, Freeport-McMoRan put the health and safety of local community members at risk when it chose to reactivate the wells located next to an elementary school. When the Los Angeles Unified School District initially planned to open the school, the company previously operating the site, Plains Exploration & Production, chose to leave the wells idle, saying that the close proximity to the school would make it too difficult to operate the wells while complying with air quality regulations set by the SCAQMD. Freeport-McMoRan knowingly placed the health of children and nearby residents at risk by re-opening its wells and refusing to responsibly close and cleanup the site after being idle for more than five years.
 
“Exposure to hazardous gas and air pollutants from these oil wells put families – children especially – at risk for not just short term health impacts such as nosebleeds and headaches, but long-term issues that result from cumulative exposure, such as asthma, heart disease, respiratory illness and cancer." said Martha Dina Arguello of Physicians for Social Responsibility and a member of STAND-LA. "Oil wells don’t belong in anyone’s backyard, and how ironic that we see this happening across the street from a school named after two important environmentalists in our recent history. This is yet another example of Freeport-McMoRan, blatantly disregarding the health and safety of Angelenos.” 
 
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STAND-L.A. Justice (“STAND-L.A.”) is an environmental coalition of community groups that seek to end neighborhood drilling to protect the health and safety of Angelenos on the front lines of urban oil extraction.