After two years of legal and political wrangling, concerned residents and BreitBurn Energy have entered into a settlement agreement that will allow for expanded oil-extraction operations at the corner of Pico Boulevard and Doheny Drive.
Neighbors for a Safe Environment (NASE), the organization that has waged a political and legal battle against BreitBurn’s proposed around-the-clock operations in the heavily Jewish area, agreed to a settlement stipulating that BreitBurn will pay up to $150,000 for NASE to obtain experts to carry out emissions analysis and risk assessment. BreitBurn will also pay $65,000 for NASE’s legal fees, and $25,000 for NASE’s additional expenses and ongoing activity.
"We’re not happy to have a 24-7 oil drilling operation in the middle of our neighborhood, but given that it is legal, at least we need to make sure that what they are doing is going to be safe and not going to impinge on the health of the people who live here," says Rae Drazin, a leader of NASE.
NASE entered into the settlement after a Los Angeles Superior Court judge in May handed NASE a partial victory. NASE had sued BreitBurn and the City of Los Angeles for approving a faulty environmental impact report (EIR), claiming that the EIR never measured the actual emissions currently at the site, and therefore couldn’t accurately predict what the expanded operations would produce.
The Superior Court judge found in NASE’s favor concerning the issue of late-night noise, but did not find in its favor on air pollution, NASE’s main concern.
With the settlement, "we’re going to actually be able to determine once and for all whether there are any health hazards associated with the expanded production," says Drazin. "A true risk assessment will be done, and then, based on that, if everything is fine and totally nonthreatening, as BreitBurn has said, then we will be very assured. If there are going to be problems and things to be concerned about, then we are going to pursue that in every kind of capacity we have."
The settlement provides funds for NASE to hire a consultant to determine what emissions are being produced at the site by the oil extraction, maintenance and cleaning. The consultant’s report will be delivered to a toxicologist, who will determine if the emissions pose a risk to the surrounding population.
There are several schools within blocks of the site, including Canfield Elementary, Harkham Hillel Hebrew Academy and Chabad’s preschool and girls’ elementary and high schools.
The settlement also stipulates that managerial-level staff of the Department of Building and Safety will be available 24 hours a day to receive complaints of noise or odors.
Throughout the process, BreitBurn has maintained the $6-million modernization project would reduce emissions by 90 percent.
The project will increase output from 1,200 to 3,000 barrels of oil a day by increasing the workover operations needed for maintenance from 10 days a month at present to 24 hours a day year-round, except on all Jewish and legal holidays. BreitBurn will replace the mobile diesel workover rig now used with a 129-foot, electrically powered derrick to perform regular maintenance on the site’s 69 wells. BreitBurn will also raise the perimeter wall from 12 feet to 25 feet and enclose most of the operations in soundproof structures.
"The proposed modernization is an improvement to the environment and to the air quality, and if the community wants additional assurances as the project proceeds, we are very confident that the EIR is 100 percent accurate," says Howard Sunkin of Cerell Associates, the public relations firm representing BreitBurn.
NASE says it will stay on top of both BreitBurn and the city, since NASE has said it considers the city’s enforcement protocol, spread out among several different agencies, to be ineffective.
"The settlement was entered into mainly because we ran out of financial resources to pursue anything further in the courts," Drazin says, adding: "My feeling is that when this neighborhood sees that 129-foot tower looming over their houses, they are going to be very upset, and wonder why this happened in the first place."
