Earthjustice attorneys sued the Los Angeles City Fire Department earlier this month, alleging that it failed to enforce the fire code at an oil and gas extraction site in South Los Angeles when it did not issue a notice to either abandon or reactivate an oil well.
“Monthly production reports demonstrate that several Wells at the Murphy Drill site have not produced oil and gas for not only one year but sometimes several years,” said Byron Chan, an attorney with Earthjustice who represents the Redeemer Community Partnership. “So, based on that data, we believe the fire chief should be issuing these notices to the Murphy Drill site.”
The complaint was filed in the Superior Court of the State of California in and for the County of Los Angeles on behalf of the Redeemer Community Partnership, which blames the defendants for putting community and workers at risk for exposure to harmful chemicals and potential explosions.
Redeemer Community Partnership protest
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“When you have an abandoned well, there are a variety of toxic chemicals coming out of it that are known to cause health effects like increased risk of cancer and asthma,” Chan told the Southern California Record. “Secondly, you have liquids rising to the surface like salty water and radioactive materials and all of those liquids have the potential to spill out and contaminate surface water and groundwater.”
The complaint, filed on March 5, also alleges the fire chief erroneously determined that one of the wells, Well 21, had been reactivated.
“We looked at production data and we clearly see that Well 21 is not producing any oil or gas and because it's not producing any oil or gas, it's considered a non-operating well under the fire code,” Chan said. “So the fire chief incorrectly removed the notice from Well 21 and we believe that the operator is still required to either abandon or reactivate Well 21 because it continues to be a non-operating well.”
The plaintiffs seek a writ of mandate and a declaratory judgment.
“These failings caught our attention and we decided to act on it after we had tried many different avenues of advocacy,” Chan said. “Specifically, we sent a letter to the fire chief informing him about his responsibility under the fire code to address these idle wells at the Murphy Drill site and we didn't receive a response or an acknowledgment of that letter. So, we were forced to file this lawsuit to enforce the fire code.”
The LA City Fire Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
A scheduling conference is set for June 6.
"It is expensive to deal with idle wells," Chan said.
"It's much cheaper to leave them idle for long periods of time until the oil or gas prices are productive again but the fire code specifically deals with that situation because the city council recognized that idle wells pose significant risks to the surrounding community. So, the fire code was written to prevent the fire chief from allowing this situation to happen."