Blog Posts

Oil Rig Goes Up In South LA Residential Neighborhood

11/18/2015

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

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Report Highlights Dangers of Neighborhood Oil Drilling in Los Angeles

11/10/2015

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

11/8/2015

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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.

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STAND-LA Applauds Pope's Encyclical, Urges L.A. Archdiocese to Follow Vatican's Lead

9/24/2015

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South L.A. Residents Seek to End Oil Drilling on Catholic Church Land

SOUTH LOS ANGELES – Today, as Pope Francis releases his historic encyclical urging world leaders to tackle the looming problem of climate change, South L.A residents are asking why the L.A. Archdiocese has not taken a stronger stance to protect their communities from oil drilling that occurs just feet from their front doors.

For years, community members have been fighting to shut down two oil sites that operate on land leased from the Catholic Church in dense residential neighborhoods. The sites, operated by AllenCo and Freeport McMoran, have become lightning rods in their communities as hydrocarbon and hydrogen sulfide emissions from the sites have caused illnesses in the community.

In 2013, nearly three years of community organizing paid off when the EPA finally shut down the AllenCo site and fined operators $99,000 after their investigators toured the site and immediately fell sick with severe headaches and nausea due to toxic chemicals. Residents have experienced a marked decrease in health problems since the shutdown—but worry what will happen when the site re-opens later this year.

The other drilling site on Archdiocese land, the Murphy site in Historic West Adams, has plagued residents with similar health and safety concerns. The site operates 24 hours a day and many neighborhood residents keep their windows closed throughout the day to out the noise, fumes and ash.

“This is a low-income community of color that is already overburdened with a variety of health threats. The health and climate impacts of oil drilling are well documented, and yet the Archdiocese is allowing it to continue despite objections from the community," said Pastor Kelvin Sauls, of Holman United Methodist Church and resident of the community adjacent to the Murphy Site. "Religious organizations have a mandate to advocate for poor and use their resources to serve the community rather than cause it harm."

The fact that the L.A. Archdiocese is actively seeking to keep these sites open, despite demonstrated harms to the community, has disappointed residents who had hoped to see a stronger response from a religious institution that purports to protect the underprivileged.

Last year, after hydrogen sulfide poisoning sent young Naelli Cobo to the hospital with severe headaches, stomach pains, and heart problems, she recorded a moving plea to Pope Francis, calling on him to protect her community from AllenCo’s reopening. Upon hearing the news of the Pope’s announcement today, she expressed hope that the local Archdiocese will take a stand to protect her neighborhood. “Like the Pope said, we need to protect our common home. I hope the Archdiocese will take his words to heart.”

Stand Together Against Neighborhood Drilling—Los Angeles (STAND-LA) is a coalition of community groups that are dedicated to safeguarding the well-being, health and safety of Angelenos living and working in close proximity to oil drilling sites

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STUDY CONFIRMS COMMUNITY’S FEARS ABOUT NEIGHBORHOOD DRILLING INDEPENDENT PANEL OF SCIENTISTS FINDS OIL EXTRACTION EXPOSES COMMUNITIES TO TOXIC AIR POLLUTANTS

7/9/2015

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Los Angeles, CA--Today, the California Council on Science and Technology (CCST) released its final analysis of the health impacts of extreme drilling techniques, such as fracking and acidization. The culmination of over two years of research by an independent panel of expert scientists, the study is the first in California's history to take a comprehensive look at the health impacts of enhanced well stimulation techniques.

The report revealed that all “oil and gas development poses more elevated health risks when conducted in areas of high population density, such as the Los Angeles Basin, because it results in larger population exposures to toxic air contaminants.” This independent analysis confirms that all forms of neighborhood drilling puts Angelenos’ health at risk.

In Los Angeles, where well stimulation takes place as close as 10 feet away from homes and schools, the study reveals the need for increased health and safety protections for every Angeleno impacted by neighborhood drilling.

In response to the release of the CCST study, STAND-LA released the following statement:

"The CCST study validates what our communities have known for years—that oil extraction is fundamentally incompatible with residential communities full of homes, schools and hospitals. Oil companies consistently tell us that these oil extraction techniques can be used safely in our neighborhoods, but this study confirms what we have learned first hand: conducting these activities in our neighborhoods puts our health and well-being at risk.

Neighborhood drilling is unequivocally an issue of environmental justice. The majority of these dangerous operations occur in our communities, which are already overburdened by social, economic and environmental health challenges. The CCST study reveals the need to protect every Angeleno, regardless of their socioeconomic status, from drilling near their homes. These dangerous activities should not continue in our backyards, or in anyone's backyard.

This independent scientific analysis proves that acidization and other forms of extreme oil extraction have significant and dangerous health impacts when located close to populated areas. Now that our L.A. City Council members are armed with this knowledge, they have a responsibility to step up and put an end to neighborhood drilling.”

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STAND-LA is a coalition of community groups working to put an end to urban oil extraction and ensure that every Angeleno lives in a neighborhood free from the dangers of neighborhood drilling.

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L.A. CITY COUNCIL ADMITS NEIGHBORHOOD DRILLING POSES HEALTH RISK

3/31/2015

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LOS ANGELES, CA- Today, City Hall took the first step toward addressing the persistent health and safety issue of oil and gas drilling in Los Angeles’ residential neighborhoods by unanimously approving the pLAn for a Healthy LA.

STAND-LA is pleased that city officials have formally recognized that Angelenos' health is negatively impacted by oil and gas development near our homes, schools, parks and places of work. Approved today by the City Council, the 'pLAn for a Healthy LA' acknowledges that the risks associated with energy extraction are a serious health and community safety concern that must be addressed. Numerous studies have proven that oil and gas development can contribute to negative health effects such as respiratory illnesses, nausea, headaches, nosebleeds, adverse developmental and reproductive effects, and a possible increase in cancer risk.

While we are encouraged that the City Council and the Planning Department have acknowledged these threats to the health of our communities, we urge them to follow through with their promise to reevaluate the City’s zoning code and other relevant policy in order to ensure our communities are not endangered by oil and gas extraction.

Stand Together Against Neighborhood Drilling Los Angeles is an alliance of grassroots community organizations dedicated to safeguarding the well-being, health and safety of Angelenos living and working in close proximity to oil drilling sites. For more information, please visit our Facebook page or follow us on Twitter.

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Oil Rig Goes Up In South LA Residential Neighborhood﻿﻿

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

Report Highlights Dangers of Neighborhood Oil Drilling in Los Angeles

Health and Safety of Local Communities Threatened by Oil Development

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

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

STAND-LA Applauds Pope's Encyclical, Urges L.A. Archdiocese to Follow Vatican's Lead

South L.A. Residents Seek to End Oil Drilling on Catholic Church Land

STUDY CONFIRMS COMMUNITY’S FEARS ABOUT NEIGHBORHOOD DRILLING INDEPENDENT PANEL OF SCIENTISTS FINDS OIL EXTRACTION EXPOSES COMMUNITIES TO TOXIC AIR POLLUTANTS

L.A. CITY COUNCIL ADMITS NEIGHBORHOOD DRILLING POSES HEALTH RISK

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Oil Rig Goes Up In South LA Residential Neighborhood

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

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