Carson Bans New Oil Drilling to Stop Occidental's Proposed 200 Slant Well Drilling Project

Carson City Council Meeting Bans Fracking & New Oil Drilling Projects

The Carson City Council on Wednesday unanimously 5-0 approved a 45-day moratorium on new oil and gas drilling (LA Times), largely due to concerns about hydraulic fracking. The moratorium blocks Occidental Petroleum plans to start drilling more than 200 new slant drilling wells. The company initially said it planned to employ fracking techniques, which inject water, sand and chemicals deep underground at high pressure. The pressure breaks apart rock in an effort to release more oil and gas. That drew opposition from Carson community activists concerned about the potential impact of fracking on air and water quality. In recent weeks, the company has said it wouldn’t use fracking because test wells indicated that it likely would not increase production. Who are you supposed to believe?

But council members said the moratorium would give them time to consider additional regulations. "There are too many questions, too many unknowns and too many possible bad consequences that could result from the city engaging in this activity," said Councilman Albert Robles, according to a Reuters report of the meeting. Robles said the City Council will consider a one-year moratorium after the 45-day period is completed. Carson’s decision follows a Los Angeles City Council's vote on Feb. 28 to pursue a moratorium on fracking and injection wells.

Click Here to Review Details of Pins Carson Oil Drilling Issues

Where are Carson residents, students and business people organizing on Facebook or social media to fight this? 

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.

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.

Why Is E&B Natural Resources Calling It An "Oil Recovery" Project?

I would like to suggest to E&B management and the City of Hermosa Beach to stop misleading the residents by your faulty marketing vernacular "recovery".  Please read the definition of "recovery" because E&B does not own anything in this town.  We the residents of Hermosa Beach are smarter than 5th graders and think you should call your project what it is . . . oil drilling.

"Recovery" Definition: 

1) The action or process of regaining possession or control of something stolen or lost.
2) A return to a normal state of health, mind, or strength. E&B owns nothing in this town.

Our town is healthy, strong and has been running the just fine without oil drilling for the last 30+ years.  E&B is assuming by their use of "recovery" that they own the oil underneath the City and Ocean.  This is faulty because the State owns it in a Tide Lands Trust.

Why are you so afraid to call it drilling?  Has oil drilling become a dirty word since you are doing it in such close proximity to schools, homes, parks and businesses?  Do you think you can secretly get away with installing 70 foot tall drilling rigs in our back yards that will stretch miles underground out into the ocean?

15 Ways The HB City Council Is NOT Being Impartial To Oil Drilling

Hermosa Beach City Council is Warned You Are Not Acting Impartial

In case you missed the meeting last night here is a summary of Stacey Armato, Barbara Ellman & Chris Prenter warning the Hermosa Beach City Council & City Attorney Michael Jenkins about the lack of impartiality with oil drilling.  Here are 15 excellent points they bring up that the City has not address and has simply ignored.  Are they acting impartial by not including our due diligence?  

1)  "Oil Drilling" is the proper term not "Oil Production" which makes it sound like you siding with oil.  Lets not "sugar coat" it because it makes it sound like you are siding with oil.

2)  Hermosa Beach web site discussing oil landing page is not properly updated.  It says you are waiting on the project application but also says you are reviewing it?   The project application is not properly displayed on the page.  No current information is posted and no way to notify what has changed.

3)  The illegal settlement agreement is buried in the site.  How about a quick click?  Its important component that needs more attention to detail and FAQs.

4)  City is encouraging the timeliness of the EIR encouraging a quick and efficient process and the project timeline is of critical importance.  Lets encourage the accuracy of the report not the timeliness.  Lets not speed up the process unnecessarily 

5)  As the City Attorney, Michael Jenkins should be going through the settlement agreement that is not properly reflected in the FAQs.

6) Web and FAQs do not say anything about giving the City Yard up which could be valued at $8-10M dollars.

7)  Web and FAQs do not not talk about a 35 year lease of the City Yard.

8)  If the ballot measure passes and there is no significant oil royalties we are obligated to pay $3.5M within 90 days.  How will the City pay for $17.5M if it does not pass?  City says on their web site "they will undoubtedly need to issue municipal debt to pay E&B."  How do we pay for it and you are scaring the residents by not explaining your plan.  What you are implying is that we will need to issue municipal debt and that scares the residents.  This is an overstatement because we have $30M in the bank and a $100M in real estate assets.

9)  Web site talks about gross percentage sales goes to the City and schools without discussing the Tidelands trust?  This is not true and illegal.

10)  We would like to see a much more impartial analysis of on the web site because you sit there and have no opinion on the oil project.

11)  E&B's propaganda machine has been advertising in the paper before a public hearing has been done is ridiculous?

12)  The community of Hermosa Beach does not own the oil.  Its out in the ocean and the resources of the City are not oil.  Our resources are the beach, ocean, parks, people and health and safety.

13)  Steve Layton has a poor environmental track record and no where does the City web site disclose his horrible track record.

14)  Oil drilling is banned in Hermosa Beach and does not say this on the web site.

15)  The planning application is hundreds of pages and hard to read.  Its not easy to read and has not been discussed in public.  You have to hire an attorney to understand it.

Here is the public information sharing slide in the video.

This is Tom Bakaly's slide on the public input process.  Michael Divirgilio is looking into a tracking document to inform folks about the changes they are making to the web site.  There is no way for anyone to know that they are adding any items.  Track document changes, adds and edits.  The web site is the minimum require to stay up to speed.

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.

Carpinteria Oil Drilling Initiative Defeated

Carpinteria Oil Drilling Initiative Defeated, Measure J (June 2010)

Yes: 944 (29.94%)

No: 2,209 (70.06%)

Measure J (Venoco's Oil Drilling Initiative) from Ted Rhodes on Vimeo.

A Carpinteria Oil Drilling Initiative was on the June 8, 2010 ballot in the City of Carpinteria in Santa Barbara County, where it was defeated. The primary effect of Measure J would have been to approve a slant oil and gas drilling project proposed by Venoco Inc. along Carpinteria’s coastline.  Real estate values were projected to decrease 10-15%.  Please read the Carpenteria Environmental Impact Report (EIR) which reveals some scary facts. 

Posing as a so-called "people's" initiative, Measure J was an attempt by Venoco to bypass local city government review and oversight. As the only donor to the pro side of the ballot measure, Venoco spent well over $600,000 – compared to $80,000 spent by Citizens CAP (Committee Against Paredon Initiative) that was raised from hundreds of individuals – trying to convince the voters of our small town as to the benefits and safety of their proposed massive oil drilling Paredon Project and why Venoco should be allowed to bypass all the local rules and regulations everybody else in Carpinteria needs to follow. Read more details here.

	MEASURE J: Shall the General Plan/Local Coastal Land Use Plan of the City of Carpinteria be amended and a Specific Plan adopted to authorize development of the Paredon Project, a private development project to explore, develop, produce and gather offshore and onshore oil and natural gas resources and transmit them to the Carpinteria Oil and Gas Processing Facility operated by Venoco, Inc.?

What Is Horizontal Shale Oil Drilling?

What E&B Natural Resources Doesn't Want You to Know

Here are the safety issues and risks of Slant Oil Drilling in Hermosa Beach that E&B Natural Resources doesn't want you to know.

1)  Chemicals and mud are pumped into the ground
2)  More black tar and oil on our beaches 

3)  Hole is drilled just under the deepest fresh water source from the surface. 

4)  Cement sealing always fail and thus why fracking contaminates water underground

5)  Drilling will go completely horizontal only under the Ocean. (1/4 mile)

6)  80 pieces of pipes at 495 pounds each to drill one well (2400 total pipes for 30)

7)  87 tons of pipe per well will be inserted into ground (2,610 tons of pipe for 30)

8)  Perforation gun inserted into ground for an explosions underground

9)  Hydraulic fracturing has huge safety issues under pressure

10)  Pump jacks may not be used so what will they be using?

Steve Layton says, "The best place to find oil is in an old oil field." = Fracking

Oil Companies Do NOT have to Disclose Fracking Sites in CA

Fracking is Still Highly Unregulated in California
See the Fracking Health Dangers of Gas Here


Baldwin Hills Oil Sink Hole in 1963 See (6 min 25 seconds)
Pressurized Oil Extraction Wells Caused This

Hydraulic Fracking Diagram

California Fracking Unregulated

E&B Oil Reveals Hydraulic Pumping Will Be Used

E&B further explains their hydraulic fracking technique using 27 oil wells and 3 water injection wells. The drilling rig will be 87 feet tall and will be temporarily on site for four months before it is removed. During that four month period three exploratory wells and one water injection well will be drilled. This will allow us to analyze the quality, along with the rate and flow, and other important factors of the produced oil, gas and water.

Pressurized Hydraulic Oil Extraction Wells Caused This
Redondo Beach Wins $2.5M Law Suit From Oil Companies in 1997

Eight oil companies named in the lawsuit were required to replace the oil they had taken with pressurized water. He said that because they did not, the surface under the water sank up to four feet in some areas. The subsidence led the breakwater to sink four feet below its designed height of 22 feet, Goddard said, and caused storm-generated waves to crash over the protective wall. He said the storm caused more than $8 million in damage to local businesses, a cost absorbed by the city. Several major oil companies were named in the suit, including Texaco, Exxon, Trident and Phillips Petroleum, Goddard said.