Occidental Drilling Project

We are writing to correct several inaccuracies in Phyllis Genovese’s letter (April 22) about Occidental Petroleum’s plan to drill for oil near Will Rogers Beach in Pacific Palisades. For the record, we want your readers to be clear about our reasons for opposing the project.

Simply, “This is the most dangerous project to ever come before the city,” (to quote the president of the City Planning Commission). Consider:

1--The slide-prone bluffs from Santa Monica to Malibu are always collapsing; the Oxy project is proposed on top of the remains of a gigantic slide that killed a city worker in the ‘50s. The drill site lies over an earthquake fault that recently was considered so dangerous that General Motors stopped plans to build a facility just up the coast.

2--No environmental impact report has been completed to assess the dangers from high pressure oil pipelines proposed to carry Oxy’s oil through miles and miles of residential neighborhoods to the refinery.

3--Oil drilling is inherently risky and there is no good reason to expose hundreds of thousands of tourists, commuters and residents to the risk of explosion, accident or landslide.

4--The drill site is in a residential and tourist area. Industrial uses such as oil production were wisely banned here by the people of California with the passage of the Coastal Act.

5--Our congressmen know that if new oil drilling is allowed on the coast, then they will be weakened in their efforts in Washington to stop the federal government from allowing drilling in the Santa Monica Bay. (It is very difficult to convince a representative from, say, Indiana, that there is any difference between drilling on the coast and drilling in the bay). The result will be that the visual and recreational resources of the Santa Monica Bay would be forever spoiled just as the Santa Barbara area has been.

We know that other areas of the city suffer from ill effects of oil drilling and garbage dumps, to say noting of the foul air emissions from drill rigs, most of which happened in the “bad old days.” Why spoil the coast and further pollute the bay just because the lack of good judgment has already ruined many areas in Los Angeles forever?

We all have things we hold dear. Mr. Armand Hammer, Occidental’s chief, loves art. He would not appreciate our placing several thumbtacks into one of his Monets or Picassos. We feel just as protective of the natural beauty of the Pacific Palisades and the Santa Monica Bay. It is a rare and important recreational resource for everyone in Los Angeles and should remain that way.

JAMES GARNER

TED DANSON

Los Angeles