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Disgusted Carson residents lashed out at the city's Planning and Environmental commissions this week over a proposed oil-and-gas production facility that could begin construction later this year if a series of environmental reviews are completed and approved by the city this spring.
Occidental Petroleum Corp. wants to drill 200 new oil and gas wells through the Dominguez Oil Field, an industrial area next to California State Dominguez Hills and the Dominguez Technology Center. A draft review of the project's potential environmental impacts was presented late Tuesday, and it raised no major alarms - to the disbelief of many residents.
"We're asked to believe that the risks to the public are minimal," resident David Noflin said at Tuesday's joint meeting, which drew an overflow crowd of hundreds of residents. "Tell that to the 150,000 people of the Gulf Coast who had to be relocated from their family homes" after BP's 2010 oil spill. Noflin listed contaminated sites across the city, which has a large number of closed landfills, illegal dump sites and oil production facilities. "Carson (doesn't need) another possible contamination contributor."
The proposed drilling site has been used for energy production since the 1920s and currently has about 600 inactive, abandoned wells. After extracting about 274 million barrels of oil over the decades, the 1.5-mile-wide deposit beneath north Carson dried up and the wells were abandoned.
But Occidental wants to use new directional-drilling techniques to pull fossil fuels from 4,000 to 13,000 feet below the surface. The company said the project would help reduce the need for foreign energy supplies, contribute to lower gas prices and bring about $1 million to the city's coffers each year. The newly released draft EIR states that the project will have "less than significant" impacts on air quality, water, geology and hazards like blowouts or soil contamination.
But residents who live in the area insisted at Tuesday's meeting that the drilling proposal is a horrible idea.
"I myself have witnessed explosions, leaks and spills all during a time when drilling was at a minimum," resident Lori Noflin said. "I've seen the entire city covered in ash, our beaches littered in tar, and have been locked down while Torrance refinery contained a leak.
"Reject this incomplete draft environmental report and send a recommendation to the City Council to stop the assault on the residents and city, and request a ban on all drilling activity and order all contamination be identified and cleaned up."
Dozens of residents heckled and scoffed at presentations made Tuesday by Occidental officials, supporters of the plan and the city's environmental consultant, who said the project would actually improve the environment because it's using newer, cleaner technologies. The only negative impact of the project would be loud noise created during the construction phase, according to the draft EIR.
Though no decision was made at the meeting, commissioners promised to respond to all questions and concerns raised. The comment period for the draft EIR closes at 5 p.m. March 10. A final report will then be issued and, if approved by the City Council, the project - which has an estimated life span of 50 years - can begin construction at 1450-1480 Charles Willard St.
Occidental officials plan to install about 20 wells per year in the next decade and ultimately produce 6,000 barrels of oil per day and 3 million standard cubic feet of natural gas. The wells would be encased in sound-proofing walls and the area wouldn't look much different than it does now, except for an enclosed drilling rig that would tower over the existing warehouses.
"The project would pump saltwater from deep underground, remove the oil and gas, and pump the saltwater back to where it came from," said Mark Kapelke, Occidental's vice president of engineering and operations. "The project design is state-of-the-art and addresses air emissions, geology, hazards, water quality, noise and traffic. The facility would be designed for 6,000 barrels of oil per day versus the California daily consumption of 1.7 million barrels."
Occidental initially sought city permission to use the controversial oil extraction method of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, but it pulled that request in 2012 because of community opposition. Fracking pumps highly pressurized water and chemicals into the ground to fracture shale rocks so they will loosen and give up hard-to-reach natural gases. Critics say fracturing is too risky because it's too easy for methane and other toxic chemicals to leach into groundwater, among other environmental, safety and health concerns.
Despite nationwide criticism of the practice, an Associated Press report Wednesday announced that the federal government approved three new fracking projects last year off the California coast.
On Tuesday night, several Occidental Petroleum Corp. employees told the Carson commissioners that the company does top-notch work and should be trusted. Several residents said they support it because it will bring jobs and more money to the local economy.
"I was concerned about this project in the beginning but I changed my mind," Richard Hernandez said. "I've worked with kids for 35 years and a lot of them can't play sports because they can't afford it. This would bring $1 million a year to the general fund."
Isaac McGraw, a Carson resident and Occidental employee, was booed by Tuesday's crowd and ridiculed as a "sellout" when he expressed his support for the project. "I approve of this project," McGraw said. "Occidental has a safe record."
Others who spoke in support were heckled by residents carrying signs with messages like: "Earthquakes and Chemical Contamination Will Happen. No Oxy Drilling."
Barbara Post, president of the Carousel Tract Homeowners Association, told commissioners that her experience fighting Shell Oil Co. for the past five years over a former oil tank farm that left a massive amount of petroleum just a few feet below the neighborhood's 285 homes makes her believe local elected leaders aren't concerned enough about residents' health.
"To hear these people who got up and said the money (Occidental) is going to bring to Carson, the financial, or the jobs or whatever - I'm telling you, from my own experience of what's going on in the Carousel Tract - people are dying, our animals are dying," Post said.
"Are you going to take money and financial and jobs at the risk of these people's lives?" | 
