Hermosa Beach Oil Drilling EIR Draft Discussion

Oil Drilling & Recovery Cost Benefit Analysis 

Recovery Implies That You Once Owned or Possessed Something

Costs Far Outweigh Monetary Benefits To  Few People

Air, Water, Noise Health Impacts on the Community of Hermosa Beach

Property Proximity Potential Cancer or Health Impact

Impact Areas Where Injuries Could Occur From An Explosion For Example

Since the City has not provided a proper forum for public comment.  Please use this discussion area below for commenting on the EIR.  

NoBPinHB apologizes for making a mistake & falsely accusing E&B of being involved in the Huntington Beach oil rig accident

NoBPinHB would like to apologize for making a mistake & falsely accusing E&B Natural Resources of being involved in the oil derrick accident dated October 14, 2013.  We have retracted the article headlined "E&B Natural Resources Huntington Beach Oil Rig Collapses" and regret any misinformation reported.  We made this error reviewing public legal documents associated with South Coast Oil Corp and E&B.  It was an honest mistake! 

NoBPinHB always strives to ensure that all of the information presented on this web site is accurate.  Should there be any other errors or inaccuracies please contact us directly to ensure immediate correction.  

An oil derrick in Huntington Beach buckled and was tipping over Monday afternoon, prompting evacuations in an apartment building and a home, authorities said. The derrick was threatening homes near 1st Street and Pacific Coast Highway. It was reported about 1:30 p.m., said Huntington Beach Fire Capt. Bob Culhane. The derrick reportedly began buckling during routine maintenance. Officials were using a crane to stabilize the derrick. Additional details were not immediately released. This story is developing. Refresh this page for updates.

Los Angeles Democratic Party Opposes Proposed Hermosa Beach Oil Drilling Project

Resolution Opposing Proposed Hermosa Beach Oil Drilling Project

WHEREAS, the City of Hermosa Beach is considering a proposal to slant drill from its City Yard up to 35 wells underneath the city’s homes, streets and businesses and into the Torrance Oil Field underneath Santa Monica Bay; and

WHEREAS, it is probable there will be negative effects on the health and safety of the citizens of Hermosa Beach and its neighboring communities due to this proposed drilling, and that this project is inconsistent with the city’s pledge to become carbon neutral,

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, the Los Angeles County Democratic Party opposes the proposed Hermosa Beach Oil Drilling Project and any future oil drilling in Hermosa Beach; and strongly supports the City of Hermosa Beach’s pledge to become a “carbon neutral” city and to promote an alternative“carbon neutral” economy for the city; and

THERFORE BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Los Angeles County Democratic Party send a copy of this resolution to the Hermosa Beach City Council and to Assemblymember Al Murastuchi and Senator Ted Lieu.

Author: Dency Nelson, 66AD

Passed By LACDP 8/13/13

Videos From Oil EIR Scoping Meeting on July 24

The Environmental Impact Report (EIR) process has begun for the E&B oil production project proposed to be located in Hermosa Beach. This project is ultimately to be voted up or down by Hermosa voters sometime in the year 2014. The vote is to be had as a result of a settlement agreement made between the city and Macpherson Oil that supposedly ended the lawsuit brought against the city by the Macpherson Oil company as a result of the city’s ban on oil drilling that was voted by the people.

On Wednesday evening, July 24, an EIR “scoping” meeting, as part of the EIR process for E&B’s proposed oil-drilling, was held in Hermosa’s Community Center Theater with several hundred participants hearing a presentation of the EIR process, and then adding their “scope” of the EIR comments.

The city made a video recording and also a transcript of that meeting. You may now view the video on the city’s website. It is listed in the website’s video archives as the “E&B EIR Scoping Meeting Parts 1, Part 2, Part 3.   Or use this link to go directly to the video archive page:  or browse to https://www.hermosabch.org/ and then click on “agendas / minutes/videos” on the left side of the home page to arrive at the video-archive page. View the video titled Part 1 first as the three video parts may be displayed in reverse order.

The Hermosa Beach video servers are really bad so don't be surprise if your video viewing is choppy.  There are a lot of people interested in the topic and viewing the video.  Please be patient.  Sometimes the video works better using the browsers Firefox and Explorer.  Chrome does not work well.

You have until Monday, Aug. 12, to submit additional comments regarding concerns you desire to be included in the “scope” of the EIR. Submit those comments to the city by email (krobertson@hermosabch.org) or hand deliver them to Ken Robertson, Director of Community Development, city of Hermosa Beach.

We will be going through this video over the next few weeks and will publish highlights below. 

Why Are Home Prices Dropping in Hermosa Beach?

Hermosa Beach, Manhattan Beach, Redondo Beach & El Segundo 

Condo Townhomes Average Price Per Sale & Sold 

(Click Image to Enlarge)

Hermosa Beach, Manhattan Beach, Redondo Beach & El Segundo 

Single Family Home Average Price Per Sale & Sold 

(Click Image to Enlarge)

E&B has been making their rounds presenting to local real estate groups over the past week about the economic benefits of oil drilling in our Beach town. They will spew a truck load of BS and have already costs Hermosa Beach property owners about approximately $343M in aggregate real estate wealth in the first 15 months of being in town.  Here is the math = (7000 parcels x $980,000 avg. per parcel) -5% decrease to be conservative. The last 12 months have seen a sharp spike in home prices everywhere in the South Bay but Hermosa Beach.

Unfortunately, the Stop of Hermosa Beach group has not been invited to present the other side of the oil story. If you ask anyone from E&B if slant hydraulic oil drilling can be done safely near the thousands of abandoned wells in the South Bay, E&B will lie and refer to studies or experts. However, ask any other experienced oil executive and they will tell you that E&B is nuts to hydraulic drill with capped wells under homes nearby.

Slant hydraulic drilling cannot be done safely with abandoned wells under homes and schools. Ask E&B if they plan to cover abandoned wells in the EIR? It won't because Marine Research has no experience with with their failed EIR's for Whittier Hills and Baldwin Hills. If they cover how to mitigate an abandoned well becoming pressurized in the EIR it will kill the whole project and E&B knows this. This is also a fact!  

Slant Oil Drilling Cannot Be Done Safely Near Abandoned Oil Wells Under Homes & Schools

The Biggest Failure of Marine Research's EIR for Whittier Hills

Mira Costa High School Abandoned Oil Wells

Abandoned Oil Wells Can Blowout Under Homes
See Doggr

Marine Research EIR consultant (hired by Hermosa Beach City Council for $800,000) failed to analyze the safety impact of slant drilling near abandoned wells in the EIR for Whittier Hills. (see video below) There is little chance that E&B will acknowledge the abandoned wells in Hermosa Beach, Redondo Beach or Manhattan Beach either.  Experts in the oil industry say the integrity of these capped or plugged wells under homes can only be trusted for around 30 years.  Many of these wells were capped 40+ years ago.  There is no way for E&B to mitigate the risk of an abandoned well blowout under a home, in the ocean or near a school. This is a massive issue for South Bay and urge you to watch this video and send it to your friends.  

This 1 of the 6 "Myths of the Whittier Hills Main Field Oil Project". . The Video Comments presented to the Whittier City Council Meeting by Open Space Legal Defense Fund. The EIR was done by Marine Research which failed to address these problems.  Marine Research is also doing the EIR for Hermosa Beach.

Read this news article: Whittier Hills oil project stopped by a Superior Court Judge last week. You won't read in the article but the Marine Research EIR failed in court say my sources in Whittier Hills.

KCAL9 CBS Story "Oil Drilling Proposal in Hermosa Beach"

Stacey Armato, Michael Collins from StopHermosaBeachOil.com
No Comment From E&B Natural Resources

Thank You Serene Branson from KCAL 9 

E&B did not comment on this story because news publicity is last they want in the Los Angeles area. E&B is attempting to take advantage of a vulnerable town and quietly drill into the Santa Monica Bay without waking up the powerful media groups that will make this a huge National story. The oil drilling proposal is not a story about 18,000 Hermosa Beach residents but more about maintaining the lifestyle of 11 million people that enjoy the cool breezes from Santa Monica Bay.  Its about jeapardizing the integrity of thousands of plugged oil wells under homes in Redondo Beach, Hermosa Beach and Manhattan Beach that could leak and explode if they are come under pressure from new hydraulic drilling nearby.

This illegal settlement agreement was constructed by Hermosa Beach City Council Member Kit Bobko and he is obviously nervous in this video above doing his first TV interview on the topic.  He will be forced to defend the illegal Hermosa Beach oil settlement it in order to save his political career.  Look at Kit Bobko's horrendous environmental voting record.  Watch these videos below which show Hermosa Beach City Council hypocrisy, lies, deception & intimidation.

Hermosa Beach City Council Members Took An Oath To Protect & Serve Its' Residents

    
Hermosa Beach City Council Members Took An Oath To Protect & Serve

Chris Miller (Daughter of Famous Ski Movie producer Warren Miller) delivers a power speech to the City Council.  "You took at oath of office to protect and serve its' residents.  This is not what Hermosa Beach stands for and I do not want to be owned by an oil company.  The California Tide Lands Trust was founded to protected the Coastal areas above the surface and was not developed to sell out what is below the surface."

Why I Don't Trust E&B Natural Resources or The Hermosa Beach City Council

Watch This Incredible Speech from Patti Sousa
"Why I Don't Trust E&B Natural Resources or the Hermosa Beach City Council" 

90% of all Oil & Gas Wells are Fracked

Response to:  Easy Reader Opinion Letter "On Local Government: Regarding Fracking"

Fracking is the process by which drillers inject millions of gallons of water, sand, salts, mud and chemicals—all too often toxic chemicals and human carcinogens such as benzene—into the ground at extremely high pressure, to fracture the rock and extract the raw fuel.  Its hard NOT to find a well in Southern California that has NOT been fracked in the last 60 years because the unregulated process has been going on for a long time.  How are we to ever know if this is what has caused the thousands of earthquakes the Midwest is now experiencing?

The fracking process is used to boost production at 90% of all oil and gas wells in the United States, according to the Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission, and fracking is increasingly common in other countries as well.  Although fracking most often occurs when a well is new, companies fracture many wells repeatedly in an effort to extract as much valuable oil or natural gas as possible and to maximize the return on their investment in a profitable site.

The Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission (IOGCC), is a United States organization that represents the governors of 30 member and eight associate states, and works to ensure the nation's oil and natural gas resources are conserved and utilized to their maximum potential while protecting health, safety and the environment. It was established by the charter member states' governors in 1935. The Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission is the oldest and largest interstate compact in the nation.

Fracking poses serious dangers to both human health and the environment. The three biggest problems with fracking are:

1. Fracking is causing earthquakes in Midwest
2. Fracking can cause adjacent older plugged wells to explode. 
3. Fracking leaves behind a toxic sludge that companies and communities must find some way to manage. Safely disposing of the sludge created by fracking is an ongoing challenge.
4. Somewhere between 20 percent and 40 percent of the toxic chemicals used in the fracking process remain stranded underground where they can, and often do, contaminate drinking water, soil and other parts of the environment that support plant, animal and human life.
5. Methane from fracture wells can leak into groundwater, creating a serious risk of explosion and contaminating drinking water supplies so severely that some homeowners have been able to set fire to the mixture of water and gas coming out of their faucets.

In 2005, President George W. Bush exempted oil and gas companies from federal regulations designed to protect U.S. drinking water, and most state oil and gas regulatory agencies don’t require companies to report the volumes or names of the chemicals they use in the fracking process, chemicals such as benzene, chloride, toluene and sulfates.

The result, according to the nonprofit Oil and Gas Accountability Project, is that one of the nation's dirtiest industries is also one of its least regulated, and enjoys an exclusive right to "inject toxic fluids directly into good quality groundwater without oversight."

In May 2012 the California Senate defeated a bill, introduced by state Sen. Fran Pavley (D-Agoura Hills), requiring drillers to notify local property owners and water authorities in advance that hydraulic fracturing was going to occur, and requiring the testing of groundwater before and after the hydraulic fracturing to determine whether contamination had occurred. Pavley said that this monitoring and reporting approach would help to address citizens' concerns. The state Senate defeated the bill in a bipartisan 18-17 vote.

Reported Marina Del Rey 2.9 Earthquake on Southern California Gas Fracking Site?

The 2.9 earthquake on May 9, 2013 was in Playa del Rey on top of a Southern California Gas drilling site. Will we ever know if they were fracking? The Earthquake was reported in the media as Marina Del Rey but it was actually centered in Playa del Rey according to USGS Information.  This was right on top of a Southern California Gas Active drilling site.  

Southern California Gas Facility in Playa Del Rey

See California Doggr Database for Details 

Why Did Hermosa Beach "Neighborhood Watch" Postpone Their E&B Oil Information Meeting?

Hermosa Beach Neighborhood Watch Postpones E&B Informational Meeting

A neighborhood watch meeting during which three E&B Natural Resources executives were going to present information on the company's proposed oil production project in Hermosa Beach has been postponed, according to Tracy Hopkins, Hermosa Beach resident and volunteer neighborhood watch founder.  Tracy is the co-founder and co-coordinator of the Hermosa Beach Neighborhood Watch Saferhermosabeach.com.  Safer Hermosa has a large following on Twitter at @SaferHermosa.

Ironically, Tracy was also featured on this The South Bay Show "Preparing for Disaster." The web site Safer Hermosa focuses on crime prevention and disaster preparedness.  Tracy also appears to be in the business of selling disaster preparedness kits and training programs.  She said on this show that Neighborhood Watch was inspired by watching the Katrina disaster in 2005.

HBNW receives $5,000 in funding from the city, said Tom Bakaly, city manager, adding that the $5,000 is used for National Night Out, an annual event that cities nationwide participate in in August.  Tom said the city was "kind of staying out of" the meeting and any controversy surrounding it. "This is their [neighborhood watch's] information setting," he said. "It's an informational meeting."

It does not take a genius to realize that most of the communities that have oil and gas drilling have much higher crime rates.  Go to DrillingMaps.com and you can make the obvious correlation yourself.  If oil drilling is permitted it will undoubtedly change the demographics of South Hermosa even further.  Renters will go up and so will crime rates.   

How Many Oil and Gas Drilling Fatalities Each Year?

A chart on the number of oil drilling fatalities each year from 2007-2011, 

How Loud is Oil Drilling?

Noise from oil and gas development comes from a number of sources: truck traffic, drilling and completion activities, well pumps and compressors.  A study in Colorado reported noise levels for a number of oil and gas activities.  Several hundred people live within a 500 feet of the proposed drilling property in Hermosa Beach would be kept up all night be this noise.    Here are some video examples below.

Typical compressor station	50 dBA (375 feet from property boundary)
Pumping units	50 dBA (325 feet from well pad)
Fuel and water trucks	68 dBA (500 feet from source)
Crane for hoisting rigs	68 dBA (500 feet from source)
Concrete pump used during drilling	62 dBA (500 feet from source)
Average well construction site	65 dBA (500 feet from source)

West, Texas Regulators Environmental Impact Report (EIR) Should NOT Have Been Trusted

Texas regulators knew in 2006 that the fertilizer facility that burned and exploded in West, Texasa had two 12,000-gallon tanks of anhydrous ammonia and was near a school and neighborhood, documents show. However, West Fertilizer Co., of West, Texas, told Texas Commission on Environmental Quality permit reviewers that emissions from the tanks would not pose a danger. That assertion was based on expected routine emissions, not the possibility of a catastrophic failure.

As a permit condition, the TCEQ required the company to build a wall between the tanks and a public road to prevent passing vehicles from striking the tanks. The company complied and on Dec. 12, 2006, the agency’s executive director issued an operating permit for the tanks, which already existed.

E&B Natural Resources is claiming that putting up this wall below will protect us from a similar explosion, fires and blowouts.  Are they lying as well?

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

Hermosa Beach Oil Drilling Municipal Code Law

5.56. 000E adopted June 25, 1985

Ord 85-803, adopted June 25, 1985 provides for the establishment of an oil code. Such oil code is on file and available in the office of the City Clerk.

5.56. 010 Oil drilling unlawful.

The drilling, boring or otherwise sinking of an oil or gas well, or oil or gas wells, or the maintenance, pumping or operation of any oil well or oil wells or gas well or gas wells in the city is declared to be a nuisance and is to be unlawful. It is unlawful for any person to drill, bore or otherwise sink or maintain, pump or operate or cause to be drilled, bored or otherwise sunk, or maintained, pumped or operated, or to aid in the drilling, boring or otherwise sinking, or maintaining, pumping or operating of any gas or oil well or wells for the purpose of procuring oil, gas or other hydrocarbon substances within any portion of the city. It is unlawful for any person to commence the construction or to construct or maintain any derrick, or any oil well apparatus in the city for the purpose of drilling for or maintaining any oil or gas well in the city; except, however, the oil wells now constructed or under construction or in actual operation in the city. (Ord. 95-1139 § 2, 1995; prior code § 21-10)

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.

The Hermosa Beach Oil Settlement Agreement is Not Legal

Why has no one on the City Council read the Macpherson mock jury trial documents or transcript?  The threat of bankruptcy was the basis for was for a $17.5M settlement and extortion vote and no one has read the documents?

Before you read this you should review the contract agreement comments. In a properly negotiated & compromised settlement agreement, "neither party should be happy"with the outcome.  In this settlement agreement Hermosa Beach tax paying residents lost while the lawyers, City Council and oil won regardless of the outcome of the vote.  Here are some very important questions for our proud elected officials: Council Member Patrick (Kit) Bobko, Hermosa Beach City Attorney Michael Jenkins and Michael Divirgilio.

Drilling Down Article 

1)  If there was such a real likelihood that Macpherson Oil would win a court award for HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS OF DOLLARS ($750 million,), then why did Macpherson Oil settle for a mere $30 Million or 4% of his asking price?   Did Macpherson believe that, even if they won the jury trial, they would likely receive substantially less than $30M, or probably even NOTHING (see below)?  

2)  Was the 1995 “STOP OIL” ELECTION FLAWED because the “City Attorney (Jenkins) Impartial Analysis” in the election pamphlet failed to advise/warn voters of the real possibility of a Breach of Contract lawsuit to recover POTENTIAL LOST PROFITS? Were Hermosa Beach voters properly informed about the potential consequences, including tremendous financial liability, of the Proposition E vote in 1995? What law firm was providing City Attorney services to Hermosa Beach during this decade/period of time? Weren’t Bobko and Jenkins both employees of this same law firm - Bobko's current employer RWG Municipal Law Firm (of which he is now a Partner)?

3) Until 2001, Hermosa Beach City Attorney services were being provided by (Bobko’s & Jenkin’s) RWG Municipal Law Firm, represented by RWG Employee Michael Jenkins. From 2001 and onward, Michael Jenkins law firm began providing City attorney services to the City, including providing oversight services on the law firms defending the City from the MacPhersson lawsuit.  After the MacPherson lawsuit was filed, why didn’t RWG admit there had been and omission/error, and advise the City to hold a new election? (The 1995 measure passed by a mere 565 votes). Why didn’t Jenkins (after he/his law firm began providing City Attorney services to Hermosa)? Why didn’t Bobko (after being elected to the City Council)? 

4)  Could damages even be awarded to MacPherson by a jury (under directions provided by the presiding judge) due to failure of Macpherson Oil to make reasonable efforts to “mitigate damages” over the past 15+ years, as required under California law, by insisting on a new vote with a new proper City Attorney Impartial Analysis?  Did Macpherson sue because he could NEVER meet the TERMS & CONDITIONS of the LEASE imposed by the Coastal & State Lands Commission?  Did Hermosa Beach trial lawyers including Michael Jenkins purposely ignore evidence that could have won or minimized damages?  

5) Because of Bobko's associations with RWG Municipal Law Firm and Michael Jenkins, did Councilmen Bobko have a “CONFLICT OF INTEREST” in negotiating and voting on the settlement agreement? Shouldn’t Bobko have RECUSED himself, as required under California law from all such activities.  Has Bobko violated the Brown Act?  

6)  Are these the reasons the Settlement Agreement was negotiated by Bobko in secret, and voted upon behind closed doors without public participation? Was Bobko just protecting the reputation of this law firm, and his friend Jenkins, to the detriment of the City? Why was the settlement agreement not discussed in public BEFORE City Officials signed the contract with a new 3rd party E&B before the scheduled jury trial in April of 2012? Don't neighbors heavily impacted deserve "a say" in that their property and lives could be heavily impacted? - That seems to be normal business practice with Tattoo parlors or new bars, etc

7) Is this the reason that this behind the closed doors settlement includes a requirement that the 1995 "Stop Oil  election be held again"?  By wiping out all City reserve funds if not passed. Are there also other implications with regard to attorney "errors and omissions"insurance and possible reimbursement to the City for its approximately $4M in legal defense costs?

Continue to read a list of more questions that need answers.

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.