Report Highlights Dangers of Neighborhood Oil Drilling in Los Angeles

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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