[Editor’s Note: With less than two weeks to go until the County Regional Planning Commission votes on the set of regulations known as the Community Standards District, which will govern the Inglewood oil field, Culver Crest activist Dr. De Benedittis forwarded this interim CSD proposal yesterday afternoon to three parties. They are the County Planning Dept. staff, the County Regional Planning Commission and the five members of the County Board of Supervisors.]
Rationale:
To respect the needs of all the stakeholders, namely Plains, Exploration & Production, that it may begin the process of applying for oil drilling permits with acceptance of the following conditions:
The Landowners — that their rights are respected, with acceptance of the following conditions:
The Community — that its needs for health, safety and peace of mind (from releasing anxiety of impending catastrophic disaster) are respected;
The Regional Planning Commission, Board of Supervisors, Staff, and especially Honorable Supervisor Yvonne Braithwaite Burke — that they know they are creating a Community Standards District of oil field regulations that are truly a legacy for all stakeholders, regulations that can be emulated by other communities in lieu of injunctions and litigations that will only serve to create animosity, further delays for the oil company and loss of faith in County government’s ability to operate collaboratively on democratic principles.
Given the necessity to create a CSD that properly addresses life-threatening issues specific to this oil field that are currently unclear or inadequately addressed, such as the fact that
• The cause of the collapse of the Baldwin Hills dam, bringing death and major destruction, was scientifically determined to come from water injection drilling.
• Residences, structures and streets in the vicinity manifest subsidence and uplift (whose source needs further investigation to determine cause).
• The cancer rate in the vicinity far exceeds the norm even for oil drilling areas, and whose sources and ways to mitigate the contributions from oil field activities for such disproportionate illnesses and deaths therefrom still needs to be addressed.
• L.A. County is preparing for the 7.4 Operation Shakeout and that this oil field, which sits on one of the most seismically active fault lines in the United States and surrounds a population of more than one million people, has not yet been retrofitted to withstand its impact.
Therefore in order to honor the needs of all the stakeholders, to avoid bankrupting the County, or putting unnecessary financial, mental and health stresses upon its residents and other businesses, that upon receipt of indemnification backed up with a surety bond, consisting of real money, not securities, whose amount will be determined by an A.M. Best XV type appraiser, and which will cover damages/deaths that would result from the operation of a yet-to-be retrofitted oil field during a 7.4r worst case scenario, Los Angeles County will issue interim permits allowing the operators to proceed with the processes necessary for State permits.
PXP, its landowners and the public understand that this is an interim CSD, and that by working collaboratively with the County, local communities/residents and affected municipalities, together the stakeholders, will co-create an independent safety audit team that will address the aforementioned, plus other pertinent and still-to-be resolved issues.
Given the fall of giants, such as AIG, if PXP cannot secure its operations with the aforementioned bond, then the County must issue an order to cease and desist its operations in the Baldwin Hills/Inglewood Oil Field until PXP either offers the County the bond money or has addressed the concerns listed above to the satisfaction of the stakeholders who would otherwise suffer the unremediated impacts.
In fairness to PXP, as remediations for which it is responsible are in place and functioning properly (for example, after PXP retrofits its pipelines with safety valves that are able to withstand a 7.4r), PXP can then ask for a re-appraisal so that it can get back money held in the bond for that formerly unremediated area, as also annually, the interest that accrues once the sum is adjusted for inflation and whatever other payouts were necessary.
Thus, for example, if the independent audit indicates that the water injection has/is damaging roadways and properties, PXP would receive whatever excess interest remains after inflation adjustments and whatever it deems reasonable costs to make necessary repairs.
In fairness to the County and its taxpayers, if such costs necessitate using the principal, whenever the bond falls below 10 percent of the sum adequate to cover all contingencies that year, PXP shall promptly — within 10 business days (because we never know when the Big One may shake out even the best of retrofit) — restore the bond to its full potential.
If the operator is unable to do so, all activity at the oil field shall cease and desist until the oil company and/or landowners restore the bond money to its proper capacity.
Lastly, let PXP and the landowners know that this bond shall be held by the County even after the final CSD is in place, and shall stay in effect even after the landowners choose to sell or transfer title to their land, and/or PXP chooses to cease operations, sell or transfer their lease until all necessary remediations have been satisfactorily completed.
The bond money will be returned only after the remediation standards and regulations that govern us at the time of cleanup, and are set by the EPA, the state of California, Los Angeles County and affected local municipalities are fulfilled. These restoration and remediation requirements include, but are not limited to, the land, the water table, habitat and any other areas affected by the oil production at this oil field.
The bond money will be returned after the above named agencies inspect and deem that everything is satisfactorily completed so that there will be no residual clean up costs that the above named agencies will have to pay or be financially responsible for on behalf of the people.
P.S.: No odor suppressants allowed.
We all have the human right to know what is entering and affecting our lungs, heart, nervous system and brain via our olfactory lobes.
