Hermosa Beach Residents Fight To 'Keep Hermosa Hermosa '
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Keep Hermosa Hermosa, an environmentalist group, gather at a canvassing event. (Stop Hermosa Beach Oil / Facebook)
“‘Hermosa’ means ‘beautiful’ in Spanish, and we want to keep Hermosa beautiful,” Kevin Sousa, one of the steering committee members and co-founders, said.
Hermosa Beach is not only known for its beauty, but also for its outdoor lifestyle, which includes surfing, paddle boarding and running.
Michael Collins, a psychologist, bought his dream house four blocks from the shore in Hermosa Beach six years ago.
“One of the great things about Hermosa is theof people outdoors everyday,” Collins said. “It’s not like when you go to other neighboring cities.”
However, some residents feel this active and outdoor culture of the city is now in danger. This November, Hermosa Beach residents will have the opportunity to vote whether or not to allow oil drilling in the city, which some residents feel could change the nature of the city.
November’s election is not the first time the Hermosa Beach residents have voted on whether or not to allow oil drilling. This election is the fourth time a vote on oil drilling has happened in Hermosa Beach’s 107-year history.
In response to oil drills being built in neighboring cities, like the Torrance Oil Field, in 1929 an attorney, Gus O’Connor, prompted the idea of placing a ban on oil drilling in Hermosa Beach, according to Hermosa Beach City documents. As a result of O’Connor’s efforts, in 1932 Hermosa Beach residents were able to vote on the No-Drilling Ordinance. The ordinance passed, and oil drilling was banned in the city limits of Hermosa Beach.
Fifty-two years later, in 1984, voters approved two initiatives supported by Macpherson Oil Company, which changed the city’s ban by allowing oil drilling at two sites, according to Hermosa Beach City documents. In 1992, the city council approved a lease that permitted Macpherson Oil Company to start a project, which called for up to 30 oil wells on a 1.3-acre site on the city’s maintenance yard at 6th Street and Valley Drive, next to the Greenbelt, businesses and residences.
Three years later, in 1995, there was backlash from both environmental activists and residents about Macpherson Oil Company’s project. In response, Hermosa Beach voters approved a proposition that restored the 1932 oil drilling ban.
Regardless, the city council moved on with the Macpherson Oil Company project, as the agreement was in place before the vote took place. However, in 1998, the city hired an independent expert to conduct a risk analysis, which outlined the risks that would result from the oil drilling project. Shortly after, the city council voted to halt Macpherson Oil Company’s project, and Macpherson Oil Company sued the city for breach of contract, claiming as much as $700 million in damages, according to court documents.
For the next 14 years, the case went back and forth until March 2012, when the city settled the suit with Macpherson Oil Company.
Under the deal, Macpherson Oil Company agreed to end their lawsuit with Hermosa Beach. As part of the deal, a Bakersfield-based company, E&B Natural Resources, bought Macpherson Oil Company’s rights to their original oil project, halted in 1995, for $30 million − $12.5 million was paid for its own account, and $17.5 million was paid as a loan to the city, as stated in the settlement agreement.
As part of the agreement, Hermosa Beach must hold an election to let voters decide whether or not to lift the ban on oil drilling, and E&B Natural Resources will pay for the election. If voters decide not to lift the ban, the city will have to pay E&B Natural Resources back the $17.5 million.
However, if the ban is lifted, the city will only be liable to pay E&B Natural Resources $3.5 million of the loan, which would be recouped from revenue from the oil project. Also, the city promised to give Macpherson Oil Company 3.33 percent ownership interest, or 3.3 percent of the shares, in the oil reserves, but not the right to drill for oil.
After the city council told the public they had reached a settlement with Macpherson Oil Company, a number of residents expressed their disappointment because they were excluded from the process.
“I don’t disagree with the settlement; I disagree with how it was handled,” Sousa said. “Many of us were blindsided by the settlement, including myself. When I bought my place, I was under the impression that the oil issue had been settled.”
Collins was also unaware of the ongoing suit between Macpherson Oil Company and the city when he bought his home.
“When the city council made the settlement with the oil company, my immediate response was looking out my window, and looking at the drill site, thinking: ‘Oh no, they can’t do that there,’” Collins said.
E&B Natural Resources wants to drill as many as 30 oil wells from the site using a technique called directional, or slant, drilling, Michael Finch, vice president of health safety environment and government affairs at E&B Natural Resources, said. This kind of drilling would allow the company to tap into oil and gas deposits both inland and beneath the ocean. The oil, gas and water would be separated at the site and sent through pipelines to nearby refineries.
Finch said all equipment for the roughly 30 to 35 yearlong project, the Hermosa Maintenance Yard Oil Recovery Project, would be limited to one site at 6th Street and Valley Drive, which he explained is a city maintenance yard in a light industrial area.
“Everything will all be contained on a 1.3-acre site,” Finch said. “This not only provides for much more environmental protection, but also is a much safer project.”
Another safety measure E&B Natural Resources would put in place is a state-of-the-art automated system able to shut wells down in case of a blowout or spill.
“This facility is an opportunity to benefit from all the advances in new technology,” Finch explained, “We’re very comfortable that we can provide a very safe operation in Hermosa Beach.”
From E&B Natural Resources’ estimates, as much as 45 million barrels of oil, worth an estimated $5.6 billion, could be recovered. The company estimates the city could potentially gain a total of $519 million over 30 to 35 years: over 90 percent in oil and gas royalties, around three percent in property tax revenues, about two percent would go directly to the school district, and approximately three percent would be cost savings, as the city would not have to pay this amount back to E&B Natural Resources if the proposal passes.
However, from reports commissioned by the city, like the draft of a Cost Benefit Analysis, the project would bring in between $249 to $401 million less than what E&B Natural Resources’ reports are estimating.
Another difference between the reports is that the city’s report states that the Hermosa Beach will still need to pay $26.8 million to help start the project if the proposal passes. This is a point Nanette Barragan, a Hermosa Beach City Councilmember, uses when arguing against drilling oil.
“At the end of the day, we’re going pay if the vote passes or it doesn’t,” Barragan said. “We’ve never been dependent on oil for money. So, is it going to break us if the vote doesn’t pass? No. Are we going to be okay without it? Yes.”
Regardless of what monetary benefits the oil drilling site could offer, there are many who are opposed to allowing oil wells in their city.
A number of Hermosa Beach residents, like Stacey Armato, Sousa and Collins, created Keep Hermosa Hermosa, an activist group opposed to oil drilling in Hermosa Beach.
“We didn’t feel like that an oil and gas processing plant in the middle of one of the most densely packed beach communities in all of America is a safe place to have it,” Sousa said.
The group works to inform members of the community about the issue.
“Keep Hermosa Hermosa’s mission is to educate people on the facts,” Armato, a chairperson of Keep Hermosa Hermosa, said “We want to make people aware of all the events, news and reports that are coming out.”
Reports like the Environmental Impact Report, which is meant to evaluate the potential impact of oil drilling in Hermosa Beach, was commissioned by the city. Although it is currently only a draft, Keep Hermosa Hermosa members often point to the report to inform others about the potential risks that come with oil drilling.
“I think the biggest dangers about this project are above ground,” Collins, one of the founding members of Keep Hermosa Hermosa, said citing parts of the Environmental Impact Report. “Some of the possible risks with this oil drilling project are: air pollution, noise pollution, odors and a risk to the Santa Monica Bay that doesn’t currently exist.”
Members of Keep Hermosa Hermosa are passionate about trying to prevent the proposal from passing. Collins, whose home is 120 feet from the potential drill site, grew up in Bakersfield, which he considers to be an oil city.
“I know that oil and gas production is a noxious activity,” Collins explained. “So that’s my first issue with this oil drilling project: it’s not healthy or safe for my community.”
Collins said he hopes the vote will not pass in November. However, if it does pass, he will be disheartened, but would fight it until he was not able to anymore.
“If for some reason, the project got green lighted and they started working on it, I gotta move,” Collins said. “It’s not safe to live by it.”
However, if the vote does not pass, members of Keep Hermosa Hermosa, like Armato, Sousa and Collins, said they would like to keep the group active as a non-profit to fight environmental issues.
“Before this, many of us weren’t really active in the community,” Sousa explained. “Keep Hermosa Hermosa has built something in me that I never really thought I would have, and I’m curious to see where that takes us.”
