Public hearing discusses oil drilling near campus

The Los Angeles Office of Zoning Administration held a public hearing at City Hall Nov. 25 to consider the expansion of oil drilling being conducted by the Freeport-McMoRan Oil and Gas Company in the University Park neighborhood. Dozens of community members, activists and USC undergraduates who oppose the plan flooded City Hall, unamimously demanding an environmental impact report.

Freeport-McMoRan plans to drill a new well and re-drill two existing wells in the West Adams area. The main oil drilling plant in South Los Angeles is located just a few blocks west of the University Park campus on Jefferson and Budlong Avenues. A significant number of USC undergraduates reside in that area but much of the student body is unaware of the drilling activities near campus.

Though oil and drilling companies have owned the site since the 1960s, community concern only arose a few years ago. Earlier this year, hundreds of community members gathered at a South Los Angeles church to discuss their worries concerning the company’s well proposals. Residents are particularly concerned with the extraction procedures being conducted by Freeport-McMoRan, which has been accused of injecting toxic chemicals into the ground of a residential neighborhood. When the chemicals are injected deep into the ground, they dissolve large amounts of rock and shale, which allow for the oil to be extracted. Some of these chemicals include toxic hydrochloric acid and benzene.

During the hearing, Freeport-McMoRan representatives assured associate zoning administrator Maya Zaitzevsky that the chemicals being used are present in many household products.

“Those sound like really frightening names but they are routinely used in personal care products,” said L. Rae Connet, a representative of Freeport-McMoRan.

The company representatives provided a list of household products that contain some of the same chemicals.

The Environmental Student Assembly and the Environmental Affairs Organization at USC have played a leading role in rallying for the opposition. Dale Solomon, a member of the EAO, said the drilling activities were both a safety and an environmental concern. For these reasons, the community was demanding a full environmental impact report from Freeport-McMoRan.

“The actions of Freeport-McMoRan say one thing only: Money above all,” Solomon said at the hearing. “Would you have your children attend the elementary school that’s two blocks away? Would you allow this in your community?”

In an effort to spread awareness of these activities on USC’s campus, Solomon and the EAO will be conducting an open meeting this Dec. 3 at 6 p.m. at Von KleinSmid Center Room 256. EAO is gravely concerned with the possibly harmful health effects of the drilling and is looking to inform USC students who share similar concerns.

Kaytee Canfield, a sophomore majoring in environmental studies, expressed her worries during an EAO meeting in November.

“Some of the workers on the site handling the chemicals have been seen wearing hazmat suits,” she said. “They are drilling right next to and under homes. Should the residents be wearing hazmat suits?”

During the Nov. 25 hearing, many West Adams residents complained about noise, odors and traffic resulting from the site on Budlong Avenue.

A U.S. Army veteran that resides in the West Adams area explained to the zoning administrator that many of the same chemicals were used for drilling in Iraq. He went on to say, however, that the Army made sure that the facilities containing chemicals such as the hydrochloric acids were segregated from housing and mass gathering areas to protect U.S. soldiers and allied residents.

“There is a reason why the FMOG employees wear so much [protective gear],” the veteran said. “We wouldn’t do this to our own soldiers, to our Afghan or Iraqi allies — we shouldn’t do it to our kids.”

Other residents were also concerned about the noise.

“There is currently noise from their routine operations that is deafening,” said Jennifer Blue, a resident who lives a mile away from the site, during the hearing.

Blue said that the residents often hear the pipes being driven into the ground.

During the hearing, Freeport-McMoRan representatives, who were all attorneys, touched on jurisdictional issues. They claimed that the zoning administration has jurisdiction over land use but there are several other agencies such as the city and county fire departments with much more technical expertise who have previously examined the site of the drilling.

“In the last five years, the facility has been inspected by one or more of these technical agencies 17 times,” Connet said.

Freeport argued that the community’s worries are understandable but often unfounded.

“We are aware that there has been heightened community concern,” Connet said.

Ivan Kumamoto, a member of the EAO and a junior majoring in business administration, argued during the hearing that Freeport-McMoRan should do more for the community.

“If they claim to be so responsible to the community, the least they can do, the very minimal thing they can do is to provide a third-party environmental impact statement,” Kumamoto said.