The following comes from a June 18 Christian Newswire article:
As Pope Francis releases his historic encyclical urging world leaders to tackle the looming problem of climate change, South Los Angeles residents are asking why the L.A. Archdiocese has not taken a stronger stance to protect their communities from oil drilling that occurs just feet from their front doors.
For years, community members have been fighting to shut down two oil sites that operate on land leased from the Catholic Church in dense residential neighborhoods. The sites, operated by AllenCo and Freeport McMoran, have become lightning rods in their communities as hydrocarbon and hydrogen sulfide emissions from the sites have caused illnesses in the community.
In 2013, nearly three years of community organizing paid off when the federal Environmental Protection Agency temporarily shut down the AllenCo site and fined operators $99,000 after their inspectors toured the site and immediately fell sick with severe headaches and nausea due to chemical exposure. Residents have experienced a marked decrease in health problems since the shutdown, but worry what will happen when the site re-opens later this year.
The other drilling site on Archdiocese land, the Murphy site in Historic West Adams, has plagued residents with similar health and safety concerns. The site operates 24 hours a day and many neighborhood residents keep their windows closed throughout the day to keep out the noise, fumes and ash.
“The health and climate impacts of oil drilling are well documented, and we hope to enlist the assistance and partnership of the Archdiocese in ending this activity in our neighborhoods,” said Reverend Kelvin Sauls, Senior Pastor at Holman United Methodist Church. Several members of the congregation are residents of the community adjacent to the Murphy Site.
It would have been helpful if you had put a small map with the article on the oil sites on church land…And please do the right thing for these residents by helping to shut down or have the companies clean up their sites so people can breathe and open their windows and live better….
Because our priorities are wrong, many Catholics have these strange ideas. I bet that most of those who are against oil drilling have gas eating vehicles, and seldom use mass transit. They probably over water their lawns, and keep their homes very warm in winter, and very cold in summer.
Drilling is good as oil revenues help pay for FoodStamps for the idle classes.
Does anyone know the last well drilled there and its year of drilling? Who made the lease with the present owner and are the drilling companies living up to that covenent and would they be interested in modifying the covenent or contract for reimbursement of some of their lease money? Possibly using the reimbursement funds to share the cost with the owner of early abandonement of the wells. When was the last time anyone bought a house next to an existing well, unless of course they lived in oil country, and got a deal. jim