GARDEN GROVE : Initiative Pushed to Ban Oil Drilling

A petition drive has been launched in an effort to place an initiative on the November ballot that would ban drilling for oil and gas in the central part of Garden Grove.

Representing the Garden Grove GOO (Get Oil Out) Committee, City Councilmen J. Tilman Williams and Robert F. Dinsen, along with businessman Bruce Broadwater, have submitted the proposed initiative to the city clerk’s office. The measure would “prohibit the drilling of oil and gas wells within 800 feet of any church, school or residential property.”

In May through June, 1989, Chevron USA Inc. sought city permits to drill exploratory wells on land it owns in the central part of the city, but after lengthy and sometimes acrimonious hearings before the City Council, the permits were denied on a 3-2 vote.

City Clerk Carolyn Morris said petitions with at least 5,700 valid signatures must be submitted by May 31 for the initiative to qualify for the November ballot.

Woodrow Butterfield, a local businessman who is running the initiative campaign, said the group believes that Chevron hasn’t abandoned its plans to drill at Nelson and Pearl streets in central Garden Grove.

“Chevron is still sitting on that property. I think that if certain people are elected (to the council) they’ll be right back,” Butterfield said. “We did some informal polling by telephone recently and called 100 people and asked them if they approved of oil wells near schools, churches and homes, and 92% were opposed. I don’t think we need money (from oil lease fees and taxes) so badly that we need to drop 56 oil wells on downtown Garden Grove.”

Margo Bart, a district land supervisor for Chevron USA Inc., said her firm has no plans to reapply for a drilling permit.

“We still have in effect subsurface oil and gas leases, and we still have the option to utilize them. But we have a 3-2 decision against us.”

Butterfield said his group chose to pursue a ballot initiative rather than a city ordinance since an initiative could only be overturned by another vote of the residents.

Councilman Francis L. Kessler, who voted for the drilling permits, expressed some concern about liability.

“If we pass a law after Chevron gets its oil leases that says they can’t use them, do we then have to buy out their leases?”