Delay on Oil Project Report

The Hermosa Beach Planning Commission has delayed approval of a draft environmental impact report on a proposed oil drilling project in the city.

After the second hearing on a draft environmental report, the commission Tuesday told the firm doing the study to return Nov. 8 with revisions and answers to questions from dozens of residents. The commission also put off at least until then a vote on a conditional-use permit sought by Macpherson Oil Co. for oil exploration and production facilities.

About 70 residents attended the hearing, with opponents complaining that revisions made after an August hearing were inadequate. Residents said the latest version of the report fails to adequately address issues of safety, emergency procedures and impact on property values, as well as noise and traffic problems.

“I don’t think they added much information,” George Sacks, a leading opponent and neighbor of the project, said of the revised report. “I think they took an adversarial tone and just defended their EIR.”

No one spoke in favor of the oil drilling plan, or the revised report, which was submitted in June by Irvine-based Ultrasystems Inc. and revised after the hearing in August.

“We would have preferred” a vote before November, said Don Macpherson Sr., chairman of the oil firm, in an interview after the hearing. “But if that’s the commission’s preference, we’ll abide by it.”

Macpherson Oil Co., based in Santa Monica, plans to sink up to 30 wells at the city yard at Valley Drive and 6th Street and use a portion of the South School site, which is a block away, for storage and processing of the recovered oil.

The delay will give opponents time to organize citywide, said Sacks.

The draft report generally concluded that an organized oil recovery effort will have little effect on the surrounding environment.

Don DeMars, vice president and director of environmental services at Ultrasystems, said his firm is working for the city, which will be reimbursed by Macpherson for the report. It has cost $35,000 so far.