Up From the Ground Comes a Bubblin’ Crude

Re “Erin Brockovich Stirs Up a Scare, but Where’s the Proof?” Commentary, Dec. 1: Every day for the past 19 years I have gotten out of bed, opened the windows of my condominium apartment and looked directly down onto the oil well at Beverly Hills High School. It is covered with ugly, brightly colored, psychedelic hippie flowers (that are fading from oil well dirt), which hide the inner workings of the huge oil-producing machine. I am not a plaintiff in any lawsuits against the Beverly Hills oil well. However, the oil well is responsible for noise, dirt and smells.

First, the ever-present humming of the oil well engines becomes louder at night. Next, the black dirt from the oil well clings to the patio furniture. And, finally, the pungent smell of the oil residue increases or decreases according to the output of oil. Is the oil well healthy for the students at Beverly Hills High School? Is the health of the neighborhood’s residents who share the air with the oil well being enhanced? This commentary fails to answer these questions.

Carole Wade

Century City

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Why is there such a fuss about benzene emissions at Beverly Hills High? Why not measure the methane emissions and compare them with Belmont? Further, why not compare them with other areas in Beverly Hills and around the open-air La Brea Tar Pits (adjacent to the L.A. County Art Museum)? Further still, in the late ‘20s and ‘30s, oil wells existed in areas surrounding Chinatown, Dodger Stadium and the Santa Fe Depot. Why hasn’t the South Coast Air Quality Management District bothered to check out those areas? Or has it? I’m not a fan of conspiracy theories, but perhaps the powers that be decided it would be fatal to Los Angeles’ economic future.

Howard Niederman

San Clemente