Baldwin Hills oil drilling plan draws packed public hearing
Residents criticize the proposal, now before the L.A. County Board of Supervisors, to drill scores of new wells. The company that operates the field notes that its oil serves local customers.
Hundreds of residents, property owners and oil field workers from the Baldwin Hills area packed a public hearing before Los Angeles County Supervisors this morning to express their opinions about controversial plans to drill scores of new wells at an 84-year-old oil field in southwest Los Angeles.
Opponents -- many Baldwin Hills and Culver City residents wearing green fabric arm bands -- filled the center of the room. Some carried green "Yay" and red "Boo" signs to use during the hearing, which is scheduled to take place during the supervisors' regular board meeting today.
Oil company supporters sat to the sides, wearing black-and-white stickers reading "CSD yes PXP" and "CSD yes domestic oil," references to Plains Exploration & Production Co. and its Community Standards District plan to drill added wells at the 1,000-acre Baldwin Hills oil field, which is surrounded by largely residential communities.
PXP has given county supervisors an extensive environmental impact report about the effects of adding more wells. At the meeting today, a company representative is scheduled to speak on PXP's plans to meet county environmental, health and safety regulations for drilling.
Opponents have called on county supervisors, particularly Yvonne Brathwaite Burke, whose district includes the oil field, not to approve the oil company's plans without further studying the effects on their homes and families. Some complain that drilling has fractured the foundations of their houses, split concrete pools and harmed their health.
"We're saying slow the process down. The project is just being rushed through," said Gary Gless, a resident of Windsor Hills.
On Monday, Burke said she believed that PXP had done a thorough job of investigating the potential environmental effects of new drilling and that the surrounding community that developed around the fields needed to learn to coexist with them.
PXP employs more than 100 workers in Los Angeles, and all the oil drilled at the Baldwin Hills field is refined and sold locally, a spokesman said.
"The set of regulations before the board today would make this the most regulated oil field in California," said John Martini, a PXP spokesman at the meeting, adding: "The technology we're using today is light-years ahead -- the public is more protected."
Martini said calls by residents for additional health studies were an attempt to delay the process.
Hennessy-Fiske is a Times staff writer.
molly.hennessy-fiske@latimes.com
