Oil Wells in the Palisades
Occidental Petroleum’s scheme to drill along the Pacific Palisades beachfront, an environmentally sensitive area, is once again being palmed off as perfectly “safe and sound.” Never a truer word spoken through falser teeth of a rig’s jaw.
There appears to be two Oxy’s--the factual and the fictional. This one exists only on paper: A simply marvelous creation of Oxy’s compatibility with family living. Illusionary, the PR picture conjures up oil stroked from sweet smelling wells and gas simply processed like a formula for baby’s milk.
But the crude oil facts of life, evident from Oxy’s 56 Westside oil and gas wells, reveal a different story. Families, forced to flee their homes due to Oxy’s fires, gas leaks, spraying the neighborhood with chemical substances so toxic that it destroyed the paint on cars parked near the site, can testify that there’s nothing “safe and sound” about this hazardous industrial encroachment into densely populated residential neighborhoods.
Because these dangers are part and parcel of this heavy industry, oil and gas drilling in residential and recreational areas was once strictly prohibited. Obliterating those environmental and safety protections, in the ‘60s, the laws were rewritten to favor oil tycoons at families’ expense. The king of crude, Armand Hammer, had a dream of turning L.A. into the great petroleum pit of the world.
Lured by Oxy’s get-rich-quick oil royalties, residents signed mineral leases and waited for their magnanimous checks. What a bloody shock--$13 a month.
Oxy’s industrial burdens outweigh any theoretical benefits. After suffering through the racket from Oxy’s oil and gas processing factories in our backyard, we have concluded that it’s just not worth it. Too late residents discovered the hoax behind wildcatters’ claims that rigs purr as soft as pussycats. After being catapulted out of bed by the bedlam of Oxy’s so-called “soundproof” site, I think it’s time to warn the unsuspecting public that oil drilling in these residential neighborhoods can be the kiss of death.
ELIZABETH MORTIMER
Los Angeles
