Faced with the threat of oil drilling in Carson—and with the loss of the protection of a moratorium against all types of drilling—community leaders, organizations and residents have requested that Mayor Jim Dear and the city council consider protective measures against the health hazards of oil exploration within residential areas.
“Drilling in populated areas like Carson is associated with air pollution and water contamination, earthquakes and negative human health impacts,” said David Noflin, co-founder of Carson Connected, a volunteer group focusing on environmental and quality-of-life issues in the city. “While communities around the state and the nation work to ban drilling in populated areas, Carson is updating its oil and gas land use laws to allow drilling within its city limits.” Noflin said that the group is against a proposed plan to drill and operate 200 wells which are “less than a mile” from residential neighborhoods and Cal State Dominguez Hills.
“The city of Carson was created in 1968 when thousands of residents came together to stop the dumping on and contamination of our communities,” said Lori Noflin of Carson Connected. “Allowing oil drilling back into our city would go against everything those people worked so hard for and everything the residents have spent in the last three-plus years fighting for.”
Late last month, the city council announced the withdrawal by California Resources Corporation of its proposal to drill 200 new wells. There has been widespread opposition to new oil exploration plans in Carson which, reportedly, could employ the controversial well-stimulation technique known as fracking.
