Residents bombarded the Culver City Fire Dept. with at least five dozen calls, and the Police Dept. also fielded inquiries. The Fire Dept. contacted the Houston-based Plains Exploration & Production Co., the driller known informally as PXP. The company explained that when it was drilling an oil well, it unexpectedly struck and released a pressurized pocket of gas.
The smelly natural gas odor took flight, wafting into the nearest residential neighborhoods, including Sunkist Park as well as Culver Crest.
"This Was Not A Fluke"
This was not a random, flukish occurrence, Rich Kissel, Chief of Block Captains for Culver Crest homeowners, told thefrontpageonline.com. “It is an ongoing problem rooted in the oil drilling,” he said.
No injuries or serious lingering effects were reported, but there were bursting bundles of residual exasperation and anger over the cause and cure of the invasion.
The pervasive smell, potential health hazard and swimming clouds of fright jolted residents probably more than during daylight hours because the threat knocked on doors when everyone was asleep.
Since the drilling was on County land, the County Fire Dept., the County’s AQMD agency, the Air Quality Management District, the state Office of Emergency Services, and the state Dept. of Conservation of Oil, Gas and Geothermal Resources all were mobilized.
The County’s Hazardous Materials Division was monitoring the air quality for signs of problems. It later reported no detected levels of measured gasses. Residents were urged to call 9-1-1, rather than a less direct number, if they felt their health was being threatened.
PXP explained that it was sealing the well site. The odors finally appeared to have disappeared, by last Saturday, according to testimony.
Some terrified residents of the Crest — on top of the hill and down below — were unsure of the degree of peril. They practiced caution. They fled with their families to distant, safer locations.
Rumors Bounced Around
As hours melted into days, probably a majority of families in the Crest’s five hundred and twenty-five homes lived with uncertainty. Had the danger passed? How serious was it? What were the chances of gas returning? Who caused it? What should happen to that person or company?
Like kangaroos on drugs, rumors bounced off of the expensive roofs of the hilltop homes in the southerly neighborhood.
Not until Tuesday night’s City Council meeting did a fairly fleshed out version of disparate experiences and events begin emerge.
Mark Salkin, president of the Culver Crest Homeowners Assn., led a contingent of residents into Council Chambers to recount events, target the guilty party and demand mitigation measures along with a sense of resolve.
Mr. Salkin said retiring Mayor Albert Vera deserved credit for snuffing out the crisis last week by taking Culver Crest’s cause to appropriate County officials.
Battle Over Responsibility
The frustration of some homeowners took another forward leap when officials of the oil-drilling company came to the meeting to apologize, face to face.
Neighbors said the company sounded too casual, that it was in too much of a hurry to put the uproar into the past without following the necessary steps, making satisfactory amends.
Residents were further nettled by the drilling company’s confession of original ignorance about the leak, that the Fire Dept. had to inform the company of what had happened. Usually the company warns the community and the nearest governing agency, a company spokesman said.
Residents seeking assurance that such a bizarre leak would not recur were disappointed.
They criticized the company for not knowing earlier that the fumes had escaped from the Baldwin Hills drilling site into Culver City’s most fashionable enclave.
For its part, PXP turned out a team of three officials who were on the toughest mission of the week, mollifying stunned, perplexed homeowners who had been driven from their beds. With the aid of an enlarged graphic, PXP personnel described how the drilling accident occurred. They implied it was flukish and that they had sought to prevent a repeat, but could not offer a guarantee.
Eleven months after heavy rains loosened a notorious hillside in Culver Crest, causing substantial slippage, the neighborhood has been struck again in the middle of another winter.
Former city prosecutor Laura D’Auri, who has lived on the Crest for two and a half years, was resting comfortably at 2 a.m. Tuesday night when something went wrong.
An asthma sufferer, she was more more shaken than some people because of how devastatingly the interruption of clear air could affect her.
Her vivid narration of a panicky scene was similar to what others endured.
A Search for Pure Air
“The sudden smell was so strong that I was awakened out of a sound sleep,” said Ms. D’Auri, who still was vexed days later. “It was so strong I thought the odor was coming from my pillow.
“I began running around the house like crazy to see where I had left gas on.
“Then I opened the front door. I almost passed out from the smell. It was a blanket. You could practically feel it. So thick, so strong.
“Everybody I talked so said they also were up and running around,” trying to discern what had happened.
“If I had known what the trouble was, I would have left my house. But I have asthma. I was so involved with using my inhalers. I wanted to make sure all of the windows were closed and the air purifier was on.”
Ms. D’Auri responded cynically to PXP’s account of events. “I think they were whitewashing the entire issue,” she said. “Basically, they are going to do what they want while they try to placate us.
“I would have liked to hear them say it never will happen again. I would also like to know if they are within the scope of their permits. If they are, we need to talk to whoever issues the permits, which I guess is the County.”
Bard Bronnenberg, an economist at UCLA who has lived on the Crest with his family for seven years, instinctively dialed 9-1-1. Even though neighbors were milling in the street, order returned to his property as soon as he deduced no threat existed.
“We have young children in the house,” said Mr. Bronnenberg. “Up until we heard it was methane, you worry, right?”
He said it was commendable of PXP to make a presentation at the Council meeting. “I am not sure, though, they should be the ones to tell us everything is fine,” Mr. Bronnenberg said. “I would rather hear it from an independent group of chemists.”
