Power Run Oil Company in Torrance Has a Dismal History of Compliance, Noise & Oil Spill

Map of Power Run Oil Company Wells in Torrance

Slide Presentation from Neighbors Appealing to City Council to Enforce Rules

These wells are still active less than 1 mile from Hermosa Beach and just another example of why you don't want an oil company as your neighbor.  Keep in mind these wells have been in operation since 1978 so the people moving here chose to live near these areas.  

Power Run Oil had a spill in 2002 that took 3 years to mitigate the odor.  See the full presentation from the Torrance, Granicus.  I find it also interesting that if you look on Zillow the homes near the oil sites worth 20% less than others in the neighborhood.  How much is the City of Torrance and the schools benefiting from this oil operation?  

10 Examples of E&B Natural Rescources Management Incompetence & Arrogance

1)  Chairman Galesi Responsible for $100B Worldcom Bankruptcy in 2002
2)  CEO Steve Layton Was Responsible for Massive Louisiana Oil Spill in 1998

3)  No Acknowledgement of Pressurizing Plugged Oil Wells Buried Under Homes

4)  Drilling in Hermosa Beach Without Proper Permits or Residential Notifications
5)  Publishing "Half-Truth Stories" In Local Newspapers
6)  No Apology & Was Evasive To City Council & Residents About Drilling Error
7)  Claiming No Real Estate Value Impacts When It Is Already  Happening 
8)  Why Is Oil Drilling An Oil "Recovery" Project?
9)  Horrendous Track Record of Oil Spills In California (see chart below)
10)  Only $1M Liability Insurance Policy For 30 Years of Drilling Is Not Enough
11)  700 Gallon Oil Spill in Huntington Beach in 2011

E&B Green Solutions Is Hilarious!

Funniest name for an Oil Company ever! 

Keep mocking our intelligence! 

E&B has an become expert at oil spill cleanups having had 25 oil spills to clean up in the last few years.  All of E&B's oil spills are on record at the California Hazmat Database on public record.  Very clever of them to create a business out of cleaning up your own crap! 

Protecting Communities from the Health and Environmental Effects of Oil and Gas Production

"Don’t Be Fooled by E&B" - Michael Keegan Beach Reporter

The Beach Reporter Letter February 13, 2013

E&B oil drilling recently placed full-page ads in this paper touting the benefits of industrializing our coastal areas. Here are some of the more informative “did you know” things about E&B and their massive oil-drilling test project.

Did you know that E&B plans to drill 35 oil well sites on 1.2 acres of land, making Hermosa Beach the home of the most densely drilled oil exploration site in the country?

Did you know that E&B’s Steve Layton and Francesco Galesi negotiated with our city council to carry a mere $1 million of liability insurance over the 30-year life of the project? This policy is to protect the city residents and government from the extraordinarily high risks associated with oil drilling and exploration. These risks include chemical, electrical and mechanical fires, intense gas pressure explosions, blowouts with fire (like the one BP had in the Gulf of Mexico), earthquakes, oil spills, truck crashes, falling power lines, lightning and tsunamis. Any of these events could produce claims in the $200 to $500 million range.

Did you know that E&B was formed primarily through acquisition of the bankrupt Equinox Oil Drilling of Louisiana, whose principal was Steve Layton?

Did you know that Mr. Layton left his creditors unpaid and changed his shirt for a new one with the label E&B on it after a record oil spill in Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana? The oil spill covered approximately two square miles of wetlands — that is an area larger than the entire city of Hermosa Beach! E&B has a problem with truthfulness. These people have a well-documented history of bankruptcies and environmental disasters. Are these the type of “partners” the citizens of Hermosa Beach want for the next 30-plus years? Don’t be fooled. E&B has embarked on a very slick campaign to win votes and influence the community. They will say and promise anything for your support, but they will put nothing of relevance in writing.

This is about our health, our community and our environment.

Michael Keegan

Hermosa Beach

Editor’s note: Keegan is a former two-term city councilman and former public works commissioner.

Beach Reporter Letter

Capped Oil Wells Beneath Homes & Ocean Can Blowout

Capped Oil Wells That Could Blowout in Redondo Beach & Hermosa Beach

Capped oil wells are a real danger in the South Bay.  Pat Aust the Redondo Beach City Councilman and former firefighter knows first hand of the dangers.  Hermosa Beach has a handful of capped wells and some are out in the Ocean as you can see.  However, Redondo Beach has hundreds of them underneath homes and Manhattan Beach has plugged oil wells at Mira Costa High School.  Here is an explanation to help you understand the potential threat to our community if slant hydraulic pressurized oil drilling is permitted underground.

Oil drilling blowout preventers (BOPs) can be used on the drilling site itself on the surface to mitigate risk.  However, blowout preventers CANNOT be used on capped wells or adjacent wells underground & in the Ocean.   If an adjacent capped oil well were to blow on the ocean seabed it would cause a massive oil spill and mess on up and down the coast.  The ocena seabed well could be capped but would required significant emergency effort (like the BP Spill in the Gulf) and would change the integrity of life in the South Bay as we know it.  If an adjacent capped oil were to blow underground beneath homes.  Lives and homes could be lost because an explosion is highly likely.  Residents in Hermosa Beach and Redondo Beach who own homes over a capped underground well would never know about the problem until it is too late.  Do we really want to trust the that the integrity of the well was capped properly 30 or 40 years ago?

Crude oil is a flammable liquid consisting of a complex mixture of hydrocarbons of various molecular weights that are found in geologic formations beneath the Earth's surface. Because hydrocarbons and gas are lighter than rock or water, they often migrate upward through adjacent rock layers until either reaching the surface or becoming trapped within porous rocks (known as reservoirs) by impermeable rocks above. However, the process is influenced by underground water flows, causing oil to migrate hundreds of kilometres horizontally or even short distances downward before becoming trapped in a reservoir. When hydrocarbons are concentrated in a trap, an oil field forms, from which the liquid can be extracted by drilling and pumping at high pressure. The down hole pressures experienced at the rock structures change depending upon the depth and the characteristic of the source rock.  The deeper the well the more risky the operation.  E&B is proposing deep wells.

Blowouts happen all the time and are daily occurrence in the oil industry.  Don't convince yourself it can't happen here because Steve Layton knows too well from his Blowout in Louisiana which bankrupted Equinox Oil.

Here is another conclusion that supports this argument from the Coastal Commission.

19 Fatalities, 60 Injuries & $230M in Property Damage Per Year from Pipeline Accidents

Fatalities, Injuries & Property Damage Per Year from Pipeline Accidents 

Who wants an oil and gas pipeline near their home? Not me and hopefully our neighbors don't either.

Pipelines average 19 fatalities and 60 injuries every year in the US.  Pipelines incidents in the US produce on average $230,000,000 worth of property damage.  A pipeline does not belong in Hermosa Beach, Redondo Beach or Torrance going to Exxon Mobile Refinery.  See these oil and gas pipeline incident statistics here.  

Steve Layton's Oil Spill in 1998 as CEO of Equinox Oil

Oil Blowout Covered 2 Square Miles

In 1983, Mr. Steve Layton co-founded Alma Energy and Equinox Oil with his father and Mike Galesi. He served as President of Alma and Equinox from 1997 to 2000. In November 2000, Francesco Galesi purchased the Alma and Equinox assets out of bankruptcy after an Equinox oil spill and formed E&B Natural Resource Management Corporation. Mr. Layton was retained as President of E&B.

Steve Layton was CEO of Equinox Oil when on September 22, 1998, oil blowout occurred from a well owned by Equinox into the waters of Lake Grande Ecaille, in Plaquemines Parish, coastal Louisiana. A blowout is the uncontrolled release of crude oil and/or natural gas from an oil well or gas well after pressure control systems have failed.  This management failure should not be ignored by Hermosa Beach residents because it is not too dissimilar to lack of management oversight in the BP Gulf Oil Spill.   

The exact volume of oil discharged is unknown, but estimates range from less than 450 bbl to 1,500 bbl.  The oil was discharged in a jet that shot straight up approximately 200-300 feet into the air along with natural gas, produced water, and sand.  The blowout continued for approximately 11 hours, at which point the discharge was stopped.  Several thousand acres of surface water in Lake Grande Ecaille, as well as the Gulf of Mexico, were covered by slicks or sheens from the incident, and approximately 1,233 acres (2 square miles) of wetlands (Hermosa Beach is 1.3 square miles) were exposed to oil.  Soon after the massive Hurricane Georges passed near the area four days later on September 26, 1998, causing the response efforts to be suspended effectively letting the company off the "cleanup hook".  However, 33.8 discount acre years of marsh was lost.  Read about the environmental damage from Steve Layton's oil spill.

Mr. Steve Layton received a warning letter on August 13, 1997 from the Department of Public of Health & Human Services of safety violations.  Was this related to the lack of management oversight?

Chapter 11 bankruptcy of Equinox Oil Company Den norske Bank, ASA, individually and as agent for BNP Paribas and Comerica Bank - Texas (the Bank Group) loaned over $106 million to Equinox and Alma.  

Equinox Oil Company Oil Spill Damage Assessment, Restoration Plan & Environmental Assessment Prepared by:
Louisiana Oil Spill Coordinator’s Office/Office of the Governor
Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality
Louisiana Department of Natural Resources
Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
United States Fish and Wildlife Service

LIST OF PREPARERS
Chris Piehler Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality
John de Mond Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality
Derek Hamilton Louisiana Department of Natural Resources
Dick Stanek  Louisiana Department of Natural Resources
Heather Finley Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries
Jim Hanifen Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries
Terry Romaire  Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries
Gina Muhs Saizan Louisiana Oil Spill Coordinator’s Office, Office of the Governor
Chuck Armbruster Louisiana Oil Spill Coordinator’s Office, Office of the Governor
Cheryl Brodnax National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
Linda Burlington National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
John Iliff National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
John Kern National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
Tony Penn National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
Christy Poulos National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
Buddy Goatcher United States Fish and Wildlife Service
Warren Lorentz United States Fish and Wildlife Service