Photo: Aurelia Ventura / Impremedia / Real America News
In the area covered by the County of Los Angeles live little more than 10 millions of inhabitants. And together with them operate 1, 600 oil wells, Due to the lack of uniform regulations over the years, a large number of these wells are near homes inhabited by communities of color – Latino and African American – and low-income.
Live near an active oil extraction site is dangerous, and therefore they are the ones who suffer the most.
The resulting chemicals from the operation of the wells cause “nausea, headaches, asthma, lung and heart disease, birth defects, cancer and more.” According to a recent Harvard University study 34, 000 Californians died prematurely in 2018 from fossil fuel pollution.
The journal Environmental Research documents a significant decline in lung function associated with living near oil wells. And the same County Department of Public Health found in 2018 that even at a distance of 1, 500 feet, wells pose a health risk. Another study, from the prestigious American Lung Association, attributes to this contamination the 15% of deaths from COVID – 19 in all the country.
The scientific evidence is overwhelming. These wells make and kill. However, they continue to operate in the county. Oil extraction continues and our people get sick and die.
It is a situation that cannot continue.
This Wednesday 15, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors will have the opportunity to decide whether to finally begin the process of phasing out oil and gas drilling in the unincorporated areas.
The wells are distributed especially in these localities. In District 2 (supervisor Holly Mitchell) West Athens, West Carson and West Rancho Domínguez-Victoria. In the 4th (supervisor Janice Hahn), North Whittier and Rowland Heights. And in number 5 (Kathryn Barger), with the communities of Castaic, Oat Mountain, the Santa Clarita Valley and Val Verde.
If the Board members adopt the motions in good time this Tuesday, they will make the county the first in the country to ban new drilling and decide to phase out existing ones.
The two proposals, authored by supervisors Holly Mitchell and Sheila Kuehl, are: first, to declare non-compliant oil drilling in unincorporated areas and the Inglewood oil field, the world’s largest urban area. Second, expand the Just Transition Task Force, which will help move fossil fuel workers into well-paying jobs.
We hope that Supervisor Solís, president of the council and whose fight for environmental justice is known and important, will carry out the proposal.
In the middle of the COVID pandemic – 19, a viral disease that precisely attacks the promulgating these regulations is, if possible, even more important to protect the population.
Gabriel Lerner is editor emeritus of Real America News.