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Oil Rig Goes Up In South LA Residential Neighborhood

11/18/2015

1 Comment

 

Residents Hold a Communal Phone-In to Report Noxious Fumes & Demand Regulatory Actio

Stand Together Against Neighborhood Drilling, Los Angeles (STAND-LA) is streaming LIVE on periscope to show you what neighborhood drilling really looks like. 

We found out just last night that Freeport McMoRan would be conducing a “well rework” at their Jefferson Drill site. These oil extraction jobs require a huge, noisy drill rig, tanker trucks full of unknown chemicals, and noxious fumes that spread throughout the community, giving nearby residents nausea and headaches.  

At 9:30am this morning, community members will assemble at the Jefferson Drill Site to a communal “phone-in” to report chemical odor complaints to the South Coast Air Quality Management District (SCAQMD). The phone is calling attention to the lack of response from the regulators who are supposedly charged with protecting the community from the toxic fumes emitted from neighborhood drilling sites. Residents will be protesting the AQMD’s overly stringent set of rules and protocol that places the onus of identifying public nuisance facilities on the community. They require 6 residents from 6 different households to call in a complaint. After calling to report noxious fumes, AQMD inspectors have taken up to
 7 hours to respond, often they do not bring monitoring equipment, and they always call the drill site to warn them that they are on their way.

LOCATION:
Budding Gate of Jefferson Drill Site
Near residence at 3029 Budlong Ave.
Los Angeles, CA 90007
 
WHEN:  Wednesday, November 18, 2015 9:00AM - 10:15 AM PST       

SPEAKERS:
  • Richard Parks, President and Executive Director of Redeemer Community Partnership
    • Redeemer Community Partnership is a member of the Stand Together Against Neighborhood Drilling Los Angeles (STAND-LA) coalition, which is dedicated to safeguarding the well-being, health and safety of Angelenos living and working in close proximity to oil drilling sites.
  • Niki Wong, Lead Community Organizer of Redeemer Community Partnership
  • Lillian Marenco, Long-time Neighbor of Jefferson Drill Site (Spanish Speaker)
  • Corissa Pacillas-Smith, Adjacent Resident
  • Mrs. Ghaman, Adjacent Resident
1 Comment

Report Highlights Dangers of Neighborhood Oil Drilling  in Los Angeles 

11/10/2015

8 Comments

 

Health and Safety of Local Communities Threatened by Oil Development 

​Los Angeles, CA--Today, the Liberty Hill Foundation released its Drilling Down report, which details the experiences of Los Angeles area residents who live close to oil extraction operations. Los Angeles is home to the nation’s largest urban oil field and oil production sites are known to emit toxic chemicals into the surrounding air, produce a steady stream of noise and heavy truck traffic, and leave neighbors with little information about activities conducted next door to homes and schools. Residents of the communities featured in the report – many of which already disproportionately suffer from exposure to environmental pollutants – describe health ailments including nosebleeds, nausea, respiratory illness and dizziness that they argue are a direct result of industrial oil development taking place in residential neighborhoods.

The report describes the extent of drilling in Los Angeles and the intersection of that drilling with human activity, highlighting that nearly 70% of the city’s 1,071 active wells are within 1,500 feet of a sensitive land use such as homes, schools or hospitals, magnifying the negative health impacts of oil extraction. Most of the drilling in Los Angeles takes place in communities that already suffer from the aggregate burdens of poverty, inadequate health care access and poor air quality.

“Areas near drilling operations have elevated levels of volatile organic compounds, ozone and hazardous air pollutants,” said Dr. Felix Aguilar, MD, Member of the Board at Physicians for Social Responsibility - Los Angeles. “For Angelenos who live near oil drilling, these air toxins put them 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.” 

Earlier this year, the California Council of Science a Technology (CCST) released a state-mandated study on drilling in Los Angeles which found that the proximity to oil drilling is the single biggest contributor to the inherent health risk associated with oil extraction in urban areas. Amid the growing debate around the suitability of drilling for oil in dense urban neighborhoods, Drilling Down outlines various policy solutions including a moratorium on advanced well stimulation techniques, buffer zones between oil drilling and neighborhoods, and adding a health impact assessment requirement for drilling operations.

“We cannot be drilling for oil in the middle of our neighborhoods if we’re hoping to move towards a healthy and sustainable future for Los Angeles”, said Pastor Kelvin Sauls, Senior Pastor at Holman United Methodist Church and a member of STAND-LA. “Drilling doesn’t belong here – or in any other LA community. Drilling in neighborhoods is incompatible with the vision for vitality and dignity we all share and strive towards.” Many LA residents who share their personal stories in the report joined together to form Stand Together Against Neighborhood Drilling – Los Angeles (STAND-LA) to fight back against the effects of drilling in their neighborhoods. The report reaffirms STAND-LA’s mission to fighting neighborhood drilling in the name of community health, safety and quality of life.

STAND-L.A. is an environmental justice 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. Please visit the website for more information on STAND-LA and neighborhood drilling. 

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8 Comments

​Acid-filled Trucks Arrive in South LA,Residents Hold a Communal Phone-In to Report Odors

11/8/2015

1 Comment

 

Community Members Protest the Arrival of Trucks Carrying
Toxic Acids for Extreme Oil Drilling Near Their Homes

South Los Angeles--Today, residents staged a call in. This morning, tanker trucks full of corrosive acid will roll into a residential neighborhood in South L.A. Oil company Freeport McMoRan Oil and Gas (FMOG) regularly uses acids and toxic chemicals to extract oil from wells located just 60 feet from the nearest home, plaguing residents with noxious fumes, loud noises, heavy truck traffic, and the persistent risk of catastrophic accidents.
 
When FMOG announced Monday morning that they would be conducting yet another acid operation, local residents decided they had had enough. This notification is only available on an obscure, 54-character website on the South Coast Air Quality Management District (AQMD) website. There was no local notification that the trucks were arriving. In fact, there has never been local notification whenever FMOG conducts activity at the site involving thousands of gallons of toxic, corrosive chemicals.

Tomorrow, residents will be gathering at the site to take a stand against neighborhood drilling by communally phoning in odor complaints to the AQMD. The AQMD has a stringent set of rules and protocol that places the onus of identifying public nuisance facilities on the community. They require 6 residents from 6 different households to call in a complaint and verify the complaint on-site with an inspector hours later before an odor mitigation plan will be implemented. Residents have shared that after calling in a complaint AQMD inspectors have taken up to 7 hours to respond, often they do not bring monitoring equipment, and they always call the drill site to warn them that they are on their way. Tomorrow, residents will dispute FMOG’s claims that drilling operations have no impact on the surrounding community by providing first-hand accounts of the many ways the site has threatened their health, safety, and quality of life of their families.
 
Residents also plan to protest AQMD’s refusal to require local notification when oil companies bring tens of thousands of gallons of toxic acid into our community. AQMD refused to include local notification in its recent update to Rule 1148.2 on public notification. As a result families are unable to move their children out of harm’s way or even to close bedroom windows.
 
WHAT:  Community members who are negatively impacted by the operations at the Jefferson Drill site will meet along the sidewalk on the Budlong Ave side of the Jefferson Drill Site, near the address 3029 Budlong Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90007. Redeemer Community Partnership is a part of the Stand Together Against Neighborhood Drilling Los Angeles (STAND-LA) coalition, which is dedicated to safeguarding the well-being, health and safety of Angelenos living and working in close proximity to oil drilling sites.
1 Comment

    STAND-L.A. is an environmental justice 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. ​

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  • Campaign Updates
  • About Us
    • Our Supporters
  • Neighborhood Drilling
    • History of Oil in Los Angeles
    • LA County >
      • The Problem
      • The Harm
      • The Solution
    • Health and Safety >
      • Drill Sites in LA >
        • Jefferson
        • Murphy
        • AllenCo
        • Wilmington
        • Inglewood
        • Porter Ranch
        • Echo Park Wells
        • South Broadway Drill Site
        • Pico Blvd. Drill Sites
      • What Doctors Have to Say
      • STANDForJustice
  • Community Resources
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    • Research & Reports
    • STAND-LA in the News
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