Oil and gas drilling under City of Carson given go signal

By: Hiyasmin Quijano - 10 years ago

Artist’s rendition of Carson oil field. PHOTO BY HIYASMIN QUIJANO

• 17,000 Filipinos live in the California city of 90,000 residents

• Fil-Am mayor pro-tem votes yes to drilling

• Oxy USA promises no serious environmental impact in extracting millions of barrels of oil and gas

CARSON, California – An extended moratorium on proposed oil and gas drilling in the City of Carson ended the last week of April, making way for Oxy USA Inc. to drill under the city, which has a large Filipino population.

With four affirmative city council votes, extraction has been allowed to take place at Oxy Dominguez Oil Field in Carson.

Council members Al Robles and Lula Davis-Holmes voted to extend the moratorium, while Mayor Jim Dear and Fil-Am Mayor Pro Tem Elito Santarina voted to end it. Another council member, Mike Gipson, abstained, which qualified as an additional No vote.

“At first, we agreed to a moratorium to do a study on it to see if oil drilling makes sense for the city or not,” Mayor Dear stated. “The proposal from Oxy is what prompted the stop of the 45-day moratorium extension.”

The Oxy US Inc. environmental report admits that the proposed project is expected to emit greenhouse gases (GHGs), but that “the impact of GHG emissions from a single project towards global change cannot be readily measured. Rather, it is the increased accumulation of GHGs in the atmosphere from many projects and sources that result in global climate change.”

Drilling would only be done on city property, not private ones. Pollutants studied during operational mass daily thresholds include volatile organic compounds, sulfur oxide, carbon monoxide and lead.

The Oxy USA report also said, “The proposed project was analyzed for cancer and non-cancer human health impacts and determined to be less than significant.” The company admitted, according to Santarina, that there would be odor and noise.

City of Carson Mayor Pro Tem Elito Santarina. PHOTO BY HIYASMIN QUIJANO

“I will speak for myself, I voted to end the moratorium only on condition that it benefits the community and the development agreement will ensure safety in all aspects,” stated Santarina.

Funding would be provided to take care of any resident property damage and severe penalties will be imposed in case Oxy USA uses stimulants that were not approved, Santarina added.

“When I heard the representative of Oxy USA under oath, state they will not do any fracturing or use certain stimulants, but rather will use modern ways of extracting the oil, then that is when I agreed,” Santarina explained.

He acknowledged that whenever Oxy was ready, the city would sit down for an agreement and enter into a contract.

“Now our task is to negotiate a development agreement with Oxy USA Inc. to make sure it is beneficial to the City and people of Carson,” said Santarina, “in hopes that it creates jobs, brings revenue to the City of Carson and will not have any environmental impact.”

Santarina added: “I will object to any contract if I see that it will not have a great benefit to the City of Carson. I anticipate it will generate enough funds for projects to benefit the business sector, seniors and children.”

Dear said Governor Edmund G. Brown, Jr. called him to find out his views on the proposal. “We’re dealing with millions of barrels of oil and natural gas, but the natural gas might even be more than the oil,” said Dear in an interview with Inquirer.

Oxy is proposing to drill 200 wells. “These are high-tech, quiet and environmentally sensitive type of well system,” Dear said. Moreover, the proposed project will be located in an already developed area and will not result in significant changes or topographic alterations.

According to Santarina and Oxy’s report, hydraulic fracturing has been excluded from the proposed project.

The moratorium could have been extended for a maximum of 10 months and 18 days since it expired last May 2, 2014.

“I asked the proponents for extending the moratorium if they are in favor of stopping all oil drilling in Carson, they said yes. I asked the same group, are you in favor of stopping all oil drilling in the County of Los Angeles, they said yes. And then I said are you in favor of preventing all oil drilling in the United States of America? They said yes. To me that’s preposterous,” objected Dear.

“Can you imagine banning all oil drilling in the United States of America? Our economy would collapse. We would become more extremely dependent on foreign oil and that showed me the nature and rationale of the people who wanted to extend the moratorium,” Dear said.