Provided by
Dr. Suzanne De Benedettis:
Dear Friends and
Neighbors,
Please circulate this to your Culver City connections:
The Baldwin Hills/Inglewood Oil Field operators have been
pressuring City officials to put 100 new wells in Culver City. Some of these
may be injection/disposal wells (aka the ones that trigger earthquakes). The
City is working on an Environmental Impact Report (EIR) to assess risks
associated with giving the operators permits to set up operations within our
City.
If you are concerned
about risks to your health, safety and property, then it is urgent to speak out
so the City knows you care. Below are some facts/talking points (and an
attachment) you can add to your own concerns? The City asks that we submit our
comments by Nov 12th. Email them to the Manager of this Project, our
City Planner
Better yet, come join me.
Hand deliver your comments tomorrow night, November 9th
at City Council meeting which begins at 7PM. I will be there at
6:45PM. If you are willing, you can read your comments. This will inform all
those watching the meeting on TV or web to learn about what's happening. By the
way, you do not need to stay for the entire meeting as this item is not on the
Agenda, so we should be among the first to speak.
Just as every vote is essential to win an election, so too voicing
your comments, written and/or spoken, helps our City better research the facts
to stand firm in creating regulations that truly protect us.
Dr. Suzanne De Benedittis, PhD
Some talking points to let Culver City
Council know our health and safety needs:
1. A
rigorous health study
LA County's own research
published in Section 4.1.1 of the Baldwin Hills CSD EIR states that the
“baseline health risk in the vicinity of the Inglewood Oil Field is in the 600-800
excess cancer cases per million individuals exposed, which is considerably
higher than levels which are considered acceptable, which are approximately
10 excess cases per million individuals exposed.” (See Attachment; underlining mine).
Documented studies, such as the recent one from Johns Hoplins
University, School of Public Health, keep coming out indicating health
risks for populations living within a quarter mile of oil fields.Among
these risks are cancer, reproducitve and neurological
disorders, cardiovascular problems, asthma and other respiratory and immune
diseases.
Do you have any friends, neighbors, family or pets who live within
a quarter mile of the oil field who have died from or suffering cancer, tumors
or growths? Asthma or respiratory problems? Fertility issues? If so, include
this in your letter requesting a rigorous health study.
2.
Insurance for a worst case event indemnifying Culver City and its residents for
any and all damages
Just as the oil company has a right to its oil,
so we too have a right to our health and safety. Culver City needs
to hold the oil & gas (O&G) producers and their leaseholders
responsible if there is probable cause that their operations trigger an
event within the City.
The San Bruno, California gas pipeline explosion whose fire destroyed homes in
an entire neighborhood and killed 8 people is still not fully resolved.
(See http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2015/09/08/five-years-after-deadly-san-bruno-explosion-are-we-safer
) We do not need a fiery inferno such as San Bruno or the Gulf of Mexico
disaster,
3.
Three active earthquake fault lines (including a 7.9) run through Culver City.
Demand automatic shutoff valves and hydrostatic testing of all gas and
oil pipelines that go through the City.
The oil field may have
pipelines going back to 1924 that may be corroding (as in the San Bruno
explosion). To avoid a similar disaster or an oil spill like the recent Plains
Pipeline in Santa Barbara, which could contaminate our aquifer, it is a basic
necessity to have all the pipelines under Culver City tested and
approved or replaced before issuing any new permits or renewing older ones.
With the ongoing
mini-earthquakes/seismicity in the oil field, as well as the uplift and
subsidence, it also makes sense to demand that all joints in the pipeline be
seismically retrofitted to withstand a major earthquake.
*** Please
email me at if you
would like to be kept abreast of ongoing developments with Culver City's
EIR.