Residents near oil fields hope Gov. Newsom signs state bill that creates community safety buffer zone

Growing up in Wilmington, a heavily Latino community in the Harbor area of Los Angeles, Ashley Hernandez always felt the presence of the massive oil field near her home. As a child when she played with neighbors, she often brought a tissue to cover her nose to stop it from bleeding. Every time she touched a car or windowsill, it was covered with dark dust.

When her doctor learned that she lived near noxious oil rigs and suffered from eye problems, he recommended she keep her windows shut.

Hernandez, 29, who is now a community organizer for the nonprofit Communities for a Better Environment, tried to understand what might be triggering her symptoms and began to connect the dots. She discovered that many children in her neighborhood had nose and eye problems and that a refinery near her school emitted toxic fumes. Her house sat within a walking distance from the Wilmington Oil field, one of the largest oil sites in the country.

When state legislators approved a new bill in late August that would set up 3,200-feet buffer zones between oil fields and neighborhoods like hers, Hernandez called it “a monumental moment.”

Today that bill is on Gov. Gavin Newsom’s desk, and he can veto it or agree to make it law.

“We need to protect communities and make sure these kinds of sites are not around schools, daycares and churches,” she said.

Hernandez is among millions of residents in Los Angeles County living near fossil fuel extraction who, as they learn about the bill in Sacramento, hope the buffer zone proposed in Senate Bill 1137 will save lives.

Authored by State Senators Lena Gonzalez (D-Long Beach) and Monique Limón (D-Santa Barbara), the bill would require all oil or gas production facilities or wells within a 3,200-foot buffer zone to comply with health, safety, and environmental requirements.

Earlier this month SB 1137 was sent to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s desk. The governor can choose to sign it into law by the end of this month or allow it to become law without his signature — a common practice in the California governor’s office. Or he can veto some parts of the bill — or kill it outright in September.

Residents and environmental activists are optimistic that after a long effort to make these protections happen, this time the bill will survive.

“We have the data and we have the science and we’re going to take action on that science to protect our people from the big oil,” said Kobi Naseck, of Voices in Solidarity Against Oil in Neighborhoods.

The bill would impact not just new, but existing wells, Naseck added. SB 1137 wouldn’t allow oil companies to seek permits to make their existing wells deeper and extract more oil, a procedure oil companies perform every two to three years.

More than 2.7 million Californians live within the 3,200 feet buffer zone in California, and 70% of them are people of color.

In Los Angeles County alone nearly 1.89 million residents live near oil and gas operations — one of several California countries that produce large volumes of oil within the envisioned buffer zones in the bill. The other impacted counties include Kern, Ventura, Orange, and Santa Barbara, according to an analysis by the non-profit FracTracker Alliance.

Studies show that those living near oil and gas wells are at greater risk of asthma, preterm births, respiratory disease and cancer.

The setback bill is not the first one proposed by legislators in Sacramento who sought to establish a buffer zone between homes and drilling sites. Similar bans were introduced by state Assemblymember Al Muratsuchi (D-Torrance) and Sens. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) and Limón, but they died in the state senate.

But things changed last year when Newsom proposed a draft rule to establish a 3,200-foot setback to protect public health.

“Our reliance on fossil fuels has resulted in more kids getting asthma, more children born with birth defects, and more communities exposed to toxic, dangerous chemicals,” Gov. Newsom said in a statement. “California is taking a significant step to protect the more than two million residents who live within a half-mile of oil drilling sites, many in low-income and communities of color.”

Oil and gas companies have been pushing back.

Catherine Reheis-Boyd, president and CEO of the Western States Petroleum Association, a petroleum trade association representing oil and natural gas producers, said the bill on Newsom’s desk is “a direct attempt by the Governor to shut down oil and gas production in California.”

She called the proposal “a one-size-fits-all, political mandate for the entire state that does little to protect health and safety, will make us more dependent on foreign oil and will likely increase costs for fuel and energy.”

Kevin Slagle, a spokesman for the association, said the organization was not against creating setbacks from homes, but the legislation wouldn’t just stop companies from drilling new wells — it would shut down existing wells.

Several miles from Wilmington, Baldwin Hills resident Irma Muñoz lives near another massive drilling site known as the Inglewood Oil Field. When she takes a walk in her neighborhood, she sees rusty pumpjacks bobbing up and down.

“They are like black monsters, digging underground,” she said. “They have been here so long that they become part of the scenery. But you don’t want them there, you don’t like them there, and you want them to be gone.”

She said she hopes Newsom signs the bill, giving protections to communities like hers.

“We need to look at oil operations through a different lens for the good of human health and environmental health,” she said, adding that she hoped that oil and gas extraction near homes would eventually be banned.

Muñoz applauded the authors of the bill, calling them “courageous.”

“Oil companies have a very powerful lobby and have a very powerful voice and have a lot of influence,” she said. “When you have this kind of bill is because people’s health is being impacted. A bill like this would never be introduced five or 10 years ago.”

Still, Issam Najm, a resident of Porter Ranch and former president of the Porter Ranch Neighborhood Council in the San Fernando Valley, said he was disappointed to learn that bill does not include the sprawling Aliso Canyon underground gas storage facility near Porter Ranch, which released about 105,000 metric tons of methane during the 2015 Southern California Gas leak disaster that drove thousands of residents from their homes.

“Aliso wells are excluded from setbacks, which is very ironic because the reality of it is that all these gas wells produce oil,” he said. “If they are truly concerned about the community’s exposure, then these wells are equally dangerous to any community.”

There are 137 operational wells in the Aliso Canyon field, including 21 oil and gas production wells and eight storage wells, according to an analysis by Kyle Ferrar from FracTracker Alliance. Those gas wells would have fallen within the setback zone if the bill included underground gas storage facilities.

Najm said that excluding the Aliso Canyon facility from the bill is “an indication of the power of Sempra Energy and SoCalGas over state legislators.”

Even so, Food & Water Watch California Organizing Manager Tomás Rebecchi called SB 1137 “the most meaningful piece of climate legislation passed” by the California lawmakers this session.

“California has a long way to go to truly lead the nation in climate action, but the establishment of health and safety setbacks will go a long way towards protecting those most vulnerable to the ravages of the fossil fuel industry,” Rebecchi said.

Ashley Hernandez, in Wilmington, said she hoped Newsom would back the bill and address the “traumatic impact of the oil and gas industry.”

“We are tired of our community being disregarded,” she said. “This is such a sweet moment. … It’s transformational for all of us.”