WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.720 --> 00:00:03.880 This is Latino USA, the radio journal of News and 2 00:00:03.960 --> 00:00:09.119 Culture Latino USA. Latins Latino USA. I'm Maria Inojosa. We 3 00:00:09.240 --> 00:00:12.720 bring you stories that are underreported but that mattered to you, 4 00:00:13.000 --> 00:00:14.840 overlooked by the rest of the media, and while the 5 00:00:14.880 --> 00:00:17.200 country is struggling to deal with these, we listen to 6 00:00:17.200 --> 00:00:20.800 the stories of Black and Latino Studios United Latino Front, 7 00:00:21.000 --> 00:00:25.320 a cultural renaissance organizing at the forefront of the movement. 8 00:00:26.040 --> 00:00:31.760 I'm Maria Inojosa, nose bayan o la Latino USA. 9 00:00:31.840 --> 00:00:32.240 Listener. 10 00:00:32.560 --> 00:00:34.560 Here's an episode from our archives. 11 00:00:35.479 --> 00:00:38.560 So it was around twenty ten, so I was and 12 00:00:38.640 --> 00:00:41.040 I'm going on ten that I started getting really sick 13 00:00:41.080 --> 00:00:41.720 out of nowhere. 14 00:00:43.840 --> 00:00:47.479 Nayeli Gobbo is now nineteen, but she was just a 15 00:00:47.600 --> 00:00:50.040 kid when she moved with her mom to University Park, 16 00:00:50.080 --> 00:00:52.640 which is a neighborhood in South Los Angeles. 17 00:00:52.920 --> 00:00:57.880 I got spontaneous nose bleets extremely frequently. They were so 18 00:00:57.960 --> 00:01:00.960 intense that I couldn't sleep or as antilie anymore. I 19 00:01:01.000 --> 00:01:03.120 had to sleep vertically so I wouldn't choke on my 20 00:01:03.120 --> 00:01:03.600 own blood. 21 00:01:05.680 --> 00:01:08.240 She started getting body spasms to the point where she 22 00:01:08.520 --> 00:01:13.720 sometimes couldn't even walk. She started getting heart palpitations, stomach 23 00:01:13.760 --> 00:01:14.839 pain and headaches. 24 00:01:15.680 --> 00:01:20.560 Every day I had a different doctor's appointment. I was cardiologist, neurologist, 25 00:01:20.920 --> 00:01:26.199 gastern terrologist, and all these other specialists, and they never 26 00:01:26.360 --> 00:01:27.880 found what was wrong with me. 27 00:01:30.360 --> 00:01:34.400 And I always speakture that. Arsai was like very scared. 28 00:01:34.760 --> 00:01:37.600 That's Monique Uriarti Naielli. 29 00:01:37.240 --> 00:01:40.680 Small, thinking that she has brained two more or she 30 00:01:40.800 --> 00:01:44.480 has said heart problems. Sometimes I need to run to 31 00:01:45.280 --> 00:01:48.600 a doctor of us because her stomach pin is so intense. 32 00:01:48.960 --> 00:01:52.280 And it wasn't just her. She'd hear other people in 33 00:01:52.320 --> 00:01:56.240 the neighborhood talk about similar things that were happening to them. 34 00:01:56.680 --> 00:01:59.960 One day, Naielli and her sister were walking back home 35 00:02:00.040 --> 00:02:04.040 from yoga when they noticed a foul smell that reminded 36 00:02:04.040 --> 00:02:06.520 them of overripe, spoiled fruit. 37 00:02:07.240 --> 00:02:10.480 And we were like, that's weird, Like we've never smelt 38 00:02:10.520 --> 00:02:13.040 this before, so we were like whatever. We just shook 39 00:02:13.040 --> 00:02:16.080 it off and went inside to our apartment and the 40 00:02:16.120 --> 00:02:17.000 house was empty. 41 00:02:17.639 --> 00:02:20.480 She says, her mom opened the door of their bedroom 42 00:02:21.000 --> 00:02:22.840 and told her to go in. 43 00:02:23.000 --> 00:02:25.520 And that's when my mom told us there's an oil 44 00:02:25.520 --> 00:02:26.840 wall across the street. 45 00:02:27.360 --> 00:02:30.680 Monique had recently come back from a community meeting with 46 00:02:30.880 --> 00:02:34.640 a toxicologist that said that their health problems were being 47 00:02:34.760 --> 00:02:38.680 caused by an oil well. An oil well in the 48 00:02:38.720 --> 00:02:44.400 middle of a residential neighborhood in South Los Angeles. In 49 00:02:44.440 --> 00:02:47.560 one of their next visits to the doctor, Nayeli's mom 50 00:02:47.600 --> 00:02:50.960 decided to bring up this new piece of information. 51 00:02:51.520 --> 00:02:54.280 My mom told the doctor, oh, you know, we live 52 00:02:54.360 --> 00:02:56.080 next to an oil wall. I don't know if that 53 00:02:56.560 --> 00:02:58.800 could have anything to do with this. And the doctor 54 00:02:59.480 --> 00:03:01.320 took off his glasses. He put them on top of 55 00:03:01.360 --> 00:03:02.880 his head and said, you need to. 56 00:03:02.800 --> 00:03:11.720 Move from futuro media and PRX. It's Latino USA. I'm 57 00:03:11.760 --> 00:03:15.560 Maria ino Josa. Today we take you to Los Angeles, 58 00:03:15.720 --> 00:03:19.320 a city that sits on the largest urban oil field 59 00:03:19.480 --> 00:03:22.880 in the country. A young Latina and her mom decide 60 00:03:22.919 --> 00:03:31.079 to take on the powerful oil industry producer, Andres Caballiro 61 00:03:31.440 --> 00:03:32.800 picks up the story from here. 62 00:03:35.440 --> 00:03:38.040 Once you start looking for oil sites in LA you 63 00:03:38.120 --> 00:03:40.960 start to notice them all over the place. And so 64 00:03:41.440 --> 00:03:45.880 I just made this left on Topeico Boulevard. In this case, 65 00:03:46.120 --> 00:03:48.160 I'm on the west side of town and I'm looking 66 00:03:48.160 --> 00:03:52.240 at a beige seven story structure disguised as an office building, 67 00:03:53.160 --> 00:03:57.800 and there's this giant, let's see one, two, three, four, five, six, 68 00:03:58.160 --> 00:04:02.960 six or seven story building that has no windows and 69 00:04:03.040 --> 00:04:06.840 it just hovers over the neighborhood. And this, I've been 70 00:04:06.880 --> 00:04:10.600 told is the packer drill site that is still active. 71 00:04:11.160 --> 00:04:15.040 Inside this windowless building, there are no floors, just open 72 00:04:15.080 --> 00:04:18.000 space for an oil rig. It also has no roof, 73 00:04:18.440 --> 00:04:22.280 so that toxins can escape easily, so you can hear 74 00:04:22.320 --> 00:04:26.400 the birds and then sporadically this sort of mechanical noise 75 00:04:26.960 --> 00:04:33.159 coming from behind the big walls here. This specific site 76 00:04:33.240 --> 00:04:35.680 has been active since the late sixties, and it still 77 00:04:35.720 --> 00:04:39.080 produces thousands of barrels every year. I wonder how many 78 00:04:39.120 --> 00:04:43.159 people who live here actually know what happens inside this building. 79 00:04:44.160 --> 00:04:47.840 About a five minute drive west closer towards Fancy Beverly 80 00:04:47.920 --> 00:04:51.200 Hills is another the Cardiff Tower drill site in the 81 00:04:51.200 --> 00:04:55.320 Pico Robertson neighborhood. This area became a Jewish enclave after 82 00:04:55.400 --> 00:04:58.440 World War Two, and it said the tower was built 83 00:04:58.440 --> 00:05:03.880 to resemble a synagogue. Its exterior is still well kept, 84 00:05:04.240 --> 00:05:07.279 painted yellow and white, and there are now forty active 85 00:05:07.320 --> 00:05:11.440 wells beneath it. And so I'm right here at the 86 00:05:11.600 --> 00:05:15.760 entrance to this other windowless tower, and there's a sign 87 00:05:15.880 --> 00:05:20.040 from the California Health and Safety Code that reads, Detectable 88 00:05:20.040 --> 00:05:22.599 amounts of chemicals known to the State of California to 89 00:05:22.640 --> 00:05:26.160 cause cancer, birth defects, or other reproductive harm may be 90 00:05:26.240 --> 00:05:31.279 found in crude oil and other petroleum products in their vapors. 91 00:05:35.920 --> 00:05:38.240 If you really take the time, you'll even find a 92 00:05:38.320 --> 00:05:42.280 drill site hidden inside the Beverly Hills Mall. You'll find 93 00:05:42.320 --> 00:05:44.880 four islands off the coast of Long Beach built to 94 00:05:44.960 --> 00:05:48.480 resemble a tropical world of fake waterfalls and palm trees 95 00:05:48.720 --> 00:05:52.120 that cover up more than a thousand oil wells. That 96 00:05:52.160 --> 00:05:56.000 project was courtesy of the same company that helped build Disneyland. 97 00:05:56.680 --> 00:05:59.160 But the reality is that not all the drill sites 98 00:05:59.160 --> 00:06:02.600 in Los Angeles are this esthetically pleasing or guarded by 99 00:06:02.600 --> 00:06:07.320 four walls to redirect toxins away from residences. For example, 100 00:06:07.440 --> 00:06:09.240 the site near where Naielli lives. 101 00:06:09.839 --> 00:06:12.120 She's the nineteen year old we heard from before, the 102 00:06:12.160 --> 00:06:15.240 one with the nosebleeds and other symptoms. The site is 103 00:06:15.279 --> 00:06:17.960 so well hidden that the family lived across from it 104 00:06:18.000 --> 00:06:20.200 for a while without knowing it was active. 105 00:06:23.480 --> 00:06:25.920 I followed Naelli and Monique for a quick tour. 106 00:06:26.279 --> 00:06:28.840 And that beautiful bread building. 107 00:06:30.240 --> 00:06:33.760 This one right here, yes, on that corner from Naielli's building. 108 00:06:34.000 --> 00:06:36.320 If you look less than sixty feet across the street, 109 00:06:36.760 --> 00:06:40.080 you'll see a big concrete wall partially covered by plants. 110 00:06:41.000 --> 00:06:43.159 And then there's a gate with some signs on it. 111 00:06:43.839 --> 00:06:46.240 You made her look Asaki PIKETI sell. 112 00:06:46.160 --> 00:06:50.520 Gate, a yellow gate that says allen Co Energy Inc. 113 00:06:55.720 --> 00:06:58.960 Allenko Energy A bought the oil production facility about a 114 00:06:59.040 --> 00:07:02.080 year before Naielli moved across the street. They're a smaller 115 00:07:02.120 --> 00:07:10.600 oil company with a few operations in southern California, now 116 00:07:10.600 --> 00:07:13.320 Alien Monique. Then take me a couple of floors up 117 00:07:13.800 --> 00:07:16.280 into a parking structure where you can get a clear 118 00:07:16.360 --> 00:07:18.760 look at the Allenko site from above. How did you 119 00:07:18.800 --> 00:07:19.640 find this spot, by the. 120 00:07:19.600 --> 00:07:21.440 Way, Oh my mom found it. 121 00:07:21.520 --> 00:07:22.040 I don't know. 122 00:07:23.600 --> 00:07:25.480 Since we're at a high elevation, you get a better 123 00:07:25.600 --> 00:07:29.440 view of what's really behind this big wall. So there's pipes, tanks, 124 00:07:30.800 --> 00:07:34.600 all kinds of other weird looking stuff underground. They have 125 00:07:34.680 --> 00:07:36.360 twenty one walls. 126 00:07:36.040 --> 00:07:40.440 But also you can see the blue pipes. They are 127 00:07:40.840 --> 00:07:45.360 the escapes for these films and they are wide open 128 00:07:45.400 --> 00:07:49.440 to the community. I always are how close it's from 129 00:07:49.480 --> 00:07:52.640 a schools and we have nine schools right here. 130 00:07:57.760 --> 00:08:02.040 Oil rigs in Elle neighborhoods are new. The beginning of 131 00:08:02.080 --> 00:08:04.760 oil production in Los Angeles goes way back to the 132 00:08:04.800 --> 00:08:09.000 eighteen seventies, when oil was discovered there. Back then, the 133 00:08:09.040 --> 00:08:13.360 city only had a population of about five thousand. Before 134 00:08:13.400 --> 00:08:16.720 would be actors flocked to Los Angeles, people came here 135 00:08:16.720 --> 00:08:20.120 with dreams of striking oil. You may remember the film 136 00:08:20.240 --> 00:08:23.960 There Will Be Blood starring Daniel day Lewis that took 137 00:08:23.960 --> 00:08:25.240 place just north of La. 138 00:08:25.560 --> 00:08:27.520 Ladies and gentlemen, If I say I'm an oil man, 139 00:08:27.640 --> 00:08:29.280 you will agree. 140 00:08:30.280 --> 00:08:31.360 I'm a family man. 141 00:08:32.160 --> 00:08:36.719 By the eighteen nineties, LA's population had grown tenfold. That's 142 00:08:36.720 --> 00:08:40.120 when a man named Edward L. Dohaney sharpened a sixty 143 00:08:40.120 --> 00:08:43.160 foot eucalyptus log, which he then used to drill one 144 00:08:43.160 --> 00:08:46.800 of the city's first wells. That site today is known 145 00:08:46.840 --> 00:08:56.040 as Echo Park. By nineteen thirty, California produced almost a 146 00:08:56.120 --> 00:09:00.720 quarter of the world's oil. LA was basically that Erasaudi Arabia. 147 00:09:01.640 --> 00:09:03.440 If you look at the black and white photos of 148 00:09:03.480 --> 00:09:07.160 Los Angeles, Venice Beach, Long Beach back in the twenties, 149 00:09:07.240 --> 00:09:10.120 thirties and even fifties. You'll be shocked at the sea 150 00:09:10.200 --> 00:09:12.760 of oil rigs that once covered these parts of the 151 00:09:12.800 --> 00:09:17.120 city and its coasts. Now most of the oil has 152 00:09:17.160 --> 00:09:21.240 already been extracted, but many operations are still going and 153 00:09:21.320 --> 00:09:24.959 new drilling permits are still being handed out. In order 154 00:09:25.040 --> 00:09:28.360 to exploit what's left, oil companies have had to resort 155 00:09:28.400 --> 00:09:33.079 to more sophisticated extraction methods, and these methods release toxins 156 00:09:33.280 --> 00:09:42.120 known to cause health issues. In twenty ten, Alinko Energy, 157 00:09:42.400 --> 00:09:45.400 the oil company that had been operating in Nayeli's neighborhood 158 00:09:45.440 --> 00:09:49.160 when she and her mom moved in, started engaging in acidizing, 159 00:09:49.760 --> 00:09:52.760 a process similar to fracking in which acids are used 160 00:09:52.800 --> 00:09:55.680 to dissolve rock and then free up oil deposits that 161 00:09:55.760 --> 00:10:00.280 are deep beneath the surface. After they started acidizing, action 162 00:10:00.360 --> 00:10:04.000 for Allenco Energy went up by four hundred percent, but 163 00:10:04.160 --> 00:10:07.280 so did the number of neighbors complaining about their horrible smells, 164 00:10:07.679 --> 00:10:11.920 people with headaches, children with recurring nosebleeds. That was the 165 00:10:12.000 --> 00:10:15.640 same year that Naielli moved to the neighborhood. Across the 166 00:10:15.679 --> 00:10:19.160 street from Allenco is Naielli's building, which is owned by 167 00:10:19.160 --> 00:10:22.679 a nonprofit that offers affordable housing to low income families. 168 00:10:22.720 --> 00:10:22.960 Here. 169 00:10:23.600 --> 00:10:27.000 Her mom actually works for the non profit that community. 170 00:10:27.040 --> 00:10:30.880 Feel that a lot of people experiencing Latino cultures. If 171 00:10:30.920 --> 00:10:33.480 my mom needed a tomato, for example, I know I 172 00:10:33.480 --> 00:10:35.400 could go tell our next door neighbor and we could 173 00:10:35.400 --> 00:10:35.840 get that. 174 00:10:36.240 --> 00:10:43.240 My neighbor who is beautiful, the elotero man Yalen, the 175 00:10:43.400 --> 00:10:46.640 lady Selin Tamales, kids from a school. 176 00:10:46.480 --> 00:10:50.600 Running money, came from Mexico decades ago. Like most people 177 00:10:50.800 --> 00:10:54.800 looking for better opportunities. Naielli's dad was an immigrant as well, 178 00:10:55.040 --> 00:10:58.800 but the relationship eventually became abusive. She decided to leave 179 00:10:59.000 --> 00:11:00.760 and raise Naielli a single mom. 180 00:11:01.040 --> 00:11:04.080 My mom had the strength and courage to leave my 181 00:11:04.160 --> 00:11:06.840 father there. No, it was like a really tough call 182 00:11:06.920 --> 00:11:09.200 to make. Like I've always admired her for that, and 183 00:11:09.280 --> 00:11:11.240 she's like, really my best friend. 184 00:11:11.559 --> 00:11:13.480 Her mom was the kind of person that would never 185 00:11:13.600 --> 00:11:17.120 accept defeat. So after Naille got sick and the doctor 186 00:11:17.160 --> 00:11:20.199 told them to move, her reaction was to do the opposite, 187 00:11:20.920 --> 00:11:22.480 to stay and fight. 188 00:11:22.920 --> 00:11:27.400 Because if I move, another family came and it's getting 189 00:11:27.440 --> 00:11:30.760 sick again. I think that tou hut down permanently Alenko 190 00:11:31.000 --> 00:11:32.520 energy is the solution. 191 00:11:37.360 --> 00:11:41.360 So it all started with door to door knocking, mom saying, hey, 192 00:11:41.640 --> 00:11:44.400 do you smell this? Do you know what's going on? 193 00:11:45.520 --> 00:11:45.720 Oh? 194 00:11:45.760 --> 00:11:48.320 It smells Okay, go knock on so and so the door, 195 00:11:48.440 --> 00:11:50.160 and I'll go down the block and tell these other 196 00:11:50.240 --> 00:11:50.959 families to call. 197 00:11:52.679 --> 00:11:55.920 Naielli and her mom started organizing neighbors to call the 198 00:11:55.960 --> 00:11:59.760 Southern California Air Quality Management District, which is a state 199 00:11:59.760 --> 00:12:02.960 agency in charge of dealing with air related health complaints. 200 00:12:03.600 --> 00:12:06.480 Okay, okay, we did that, what else can we do? 201 00:12:06.640 --> 00:12:09.719 It was creating town hall meetings. It was finding out 202 00:12:09.760 --> 00:12:11.440 when we could go to city hall hearings. 203 00:12:12.880 --> 00:12:13.400 All right. 204 00:12:13.679 --> 00:12:16.520 Vicacy is more than simply voting, but it is holding 205 00:12:16.600 --> 00:12:17.160 out the. 206 00:12:17.200 --> 00:12:18.600 Officials of home. 207 00:12:19.280 --> 00:12:22.880 Eventually they got the support of the nonprofit that runs 208 00:12:22.880 --> 00:12:25.360 the low income housing unit they lived in, and they 209 00:12:25.400 --> 00:12:29.200 created a campaign called People Not Posos, People Not Wells 210 00:12:29.480 --> 00:12:31.200 to shut down the Alanco site. 211 00:12:31.320 --> 00:12:35.000 The Grads Ruts campaign in South Los Angeles really started 212 00:12:35.040 --> 00:12:38.280 because of the moms, the moms wanting to give their 213 00:12:38.360 --> 00:12:40.679 children the ability to clean air. And something my mom 214 00:12:40.760 --> 00:12:43.160 always says, which I like to point out, is that 215 00:12:43.240 --> 00:12:45.959 when she immigrated here for Mexico. She never thought she'd 216 00:12:45.960 --> 00:12:48.000 have to fight for our right to breathe clean air. 217 00:12:53.640 --> 00:12:57.040 They're around five thousand active wells in LA County and 218 00:12:57.120 --> 00:13:00.000 more than eight hundred within the LA city limits alone, 219 00:13:00.679 --> 00:13:03.599 and according to studies by advocacy groups, the majority of 220 00:13:03.640 --> 00:13:07.840 these active wells are near low income, Black and Latino neighborhoods. 221 00:13:08.360 --> 00:13:11.320 After all, low income families are less likely to have 222 00:13:11.360 --> 00:13:13.840 the resources to put up a fight to get rid 223 00:13:13.880 --> 00:13:20.000 of drilling in their neighborhoods. For many years, there was 224 00:13:20.080 --> 00:13:23.680 little oversight of oil operations in Los Angeles. In fact, 225 00:13:23.960 --> 00:13:28.199 the city's petroleum administrator position was left vacant for decades. 226 00:13:28.840 --> 00:13:32.199 Only a few years ago, partly in response to communities organizing, 227 00:13:32.440 --> 00:13:35.800 did the city finally fill the post. And even for 228 00:13:35.840 --> 00:13:39.520 the regulations that were in place, some seemed only to 229 00:13:39.559 --> 00:13:41.800 apply to wider, more affluent areas. 230 00:13:42.200 --> 00:13:46.240 It was heartbreaking knowing that my life didn't matter as 231 00:13:46.320 --> 00:13:49.800 much as little girls in Beverly Hills because she's not 232 00:13:49.880 --> 00:13:51.959 exposive toxic commissions, but I am. 233 00:13:52.120 --> 00:13:55.600 According to advocates, sites on the West Side were regularly 234 00:13:55.640 --> 00:13:59.119 required to use electric rigs to help reduce diesel emissions 235 00:13:59.120 --> 00:14:02.640 and noise, but in South LA, where Naielli lives, that 236 00:14:02.760 --> 00:14:06.000 rule seemed to not be enforced, and oil operations in 237 00:14:06.080 --> 00:14:09.840 wealthier areas also seemed to have more protections like bigger 238 00:14:10.040 --> 00:14:11.880 or enclosed walls to reduce pollution. 239 00:14:12.400 --> 00:14:14.800 Yet when it was in the hood per se with 240 00:14:15.240 --> 00:14:18.680 black and brown people, immigrant people, they didn't care about us. 241 00:14:18.920 --> 00:14:19.400 It can be. 242 00:14:19.360 --> 00:14:22.040 Allowed, whereas in Beverly Hills there had to be silent 243 00:14:22.160 --> 00:14:24.000 machines and we never got that. 244 00:14:24.640 --> 00:14:28.440 Nielli and her mom continued to organize now with a 245 00:14:28.480 --> 00:14:31.680 group called stand LA until they finally got the attention 246 00:14:31.840 --> 00:14:35.200 of US Senator Barbara Boxer, who flew down to La 247 00:14:35.440 --> 00:14:38.840 and held a press conference there along with Nielli and 248 00:14:38.880 --> 00:14:42.600 other activists. She called for Alinco Energy to seize all 249 00:14:42.640 --> 00:14:47.360 operations in the neighborhood. The attention prompted on site inspections 250 00:14:47.400 --> 00:14:51.160 by state and federal agencies. Local papers reported that at 251 00:14:51.240 --> 00:14:55.240 least one EPA official got sick while inspecting the Alenco site, 252 00:14:55.560 --> 00:14:59.200 and in twenty thirteen, finally, when Nielli and her mom 253 00:14:59.280 --> 00:15:03.360 started led to a victory for the neighborhood, Aleenko Energy 254 00:15:03.480 --> 00:15:08.720 voluntarily halted its operations, with pending investigations by several agencies and. 255 00:15:08.760 --> 00:15:11.520 It's spent years that they've been temporarily shut down. 256 00:15:17.080 --> 00:15:20.720 They won another victory in twenty fifteen after a lawsuit 257 00:15:21.000 --> 00:15:23.880 led to Alanko having to pay more than one million 258 00:15:23.920 --> 00:15:27.480 dollars in penalties and to revamp their safety monitoring system 259 00:15:27.640 --> 00:15:31.480 before even being able to open again. I reached out 260 00:15:31.480 --> 00:15:34.360 to Alenko for comment, but they didn't return my messages. 261 00:15:36.200 --> 00:15:39.400 Naielli and her mom, along with other advocacy groups, have 262 00:15:39.560 --> 00:15:42.760 now set their sights on a bigger target, closing down 263 00:15:42.880 --> 00:15:48.760 every well in Los Angeles. But the oil industry isn't 264 00:15:48.760 --> 00:15:51.160 going to take that fight. Lying down. 265 00:16:00.600 --> 00:16:03.840 Coming up on Latino USA, we hear from a representative 266 00:16:03.960 --> 00:16:07.600 of the oil industry, and we look into how influential 267 00:16:07.840 --> 00:16:12.240 big oil really is in local politics. Stay with us, 268 00:16:12.560 --> 00:17:07.120 not the rights. Hey, we're back. When we left off, 269 00:17:07.520 --> 00:17:11.520 anti oil advocates had won in a fight to shut 270 00:17:11.560 --> 00:17:15.720 down oil wells in a residential neighborhood in South Los Angeles. 271 00:17:16.440 --> 00:17:19.080 Now we're going to hear why going up against the 272 00:17:19.080 --> 00:17:24.320 oil industry isn't so easy andres Caballero is going to 273 00:17:24.359 --> 00:17:25.120 pick it up from here. 274 00:17:26.080 --> 00:17:28.680 For Naielli and her mom, shutting down a few oil 275 00:17:28.720 --> 00:17:31.200 wells across the street from where they live is one thing, 276 00:17:31.920 --> 00:17:38.239 but they had a much bigger goal in mind. I 277 00:17:38.280 --> 00:17:40.440 met up with them at a rally at LA City 278 00:17:40.480 --> 00:17:43.640 Hall where more than one hundred people gathered and listened 279 00:17:43.760 --> 00:17:44.800 to Naille speak. 280 00:17:45.040 --> 00:17:48.520 So that's why we're here at city Hall asking our 281 00:17:48.560 --> 00:17:51.720 politicians that work for us, because we put them in 282 00:17:51.760 --> 00:17:54.000 those seats and we can just as easily. 283 00:17:53.680 --> 00:17:54.320 Take them out. 284 00:17:57.160 --> 00:17:59.480 So we are on the south lawn of Los Angeles 285 00:17:59.520 --> 00:18:01.760 City Hall. We are having a rally on behalf of 286 00:18:01.800 --> 00:18:04.720 stand delay so we can tell LA City Council members 287 00:18:04.760 --> 00:18:06.960 to vote yes on the twenty five hundred but health 288 00:18:07.000 --> 00:18:08.160 and safety buffer zone. 289 00:18:08.560 --> 00:18:16.080 The twenty five hundred foot buffer zone. The idea is 290 00:18:16.119 --> 00:18:18.680 to create a law at either city or state level 291 00:18:18.880 --> 00:18:22.160 that mandates a half mile buffer zone between drill sites 292 00:18:22.200 --> 00:18:27.800 and places like schools, residences, playgrounds, or hospitals. About nine 293 00:18:27.880 --> 00:18:31.040 hundred thousand people in California live within a half mile 294 00:18:31.119 --> 00:18:34.440 of an active oil or gas well. This is according 295 00:18:34.480 --> 00:18:38.479 to the Environmental Defense Fund. But a challenge to passing 296 00:18:38.480 --> 00:18:41.159 a law like this is that to do so, you 297 00:18:41.280 --> 00:18:49.000 have to go up against the oil industry. And I 298 00:18:49.040 --> 00:18:52.120 happen to get an opportunity to speak with a representative 299 00:18:52.200 --> 00:18:53.600 of the oil industry myself. 300 00:18:54.160 --> 00:18:57.560 In the LA basin, if you draw half mile radius 301 00:18:57.560 --> 00:19:01.399 circles around all production, you would and all production. 302 00:19:02.680 --> 00:19:06.320 That's Rocket Zeerman. He's the CEO of the California Independent 303 00:19:06.359 --> 00:19:10.040 Petroleum Association. When you think of oil companies, you probably 304 00:19:10.080 --> 00:19:13.800 imagine giant corporations, but many of the companies drilling in 305 00:19:13.960 --> 00:19:18.920 LA are actually small, some even family run operations. Zerman 306 00:19:19.119 --> 00:19:23.080 represents about four hundred of these independent oil and gas producers. 307 00:19:23.480 --> 00:19:25.919 He argues that the buffer zone that Naille and her 308 00:19:26.000 --> 00:19:28.240 mom want to see is shortsighted. 309 00:19:28.400 --> 00:19:31.560 It would definitely shut down nearly all oil and gas 310 00:19:31.600 --> 00:19:35.520 production in Los Angeles, and those lost barrels would simply 311 00:19:35.560 --> 00:19:40.040 have to be imported from foreign countries, primarily Saudi Arabia. Obviously, 312 00:19:40.080 --> 00:19:43.560 in California, we operate under the strictest environmental rules and 313 00:19:43.600 --> 00:19:46.679 regulations in the world, and if we were to outsource 314 00:19:46.760 --> 00:19:50.399 our oil and import it from the Middle East, we 315 00:19:50.440 --> 00:19:53.440 would simply be trading our strict environmental rules for their 316 00:19:53.560 --> 00:19:57.200 very loose environmental rules, and that would harm the environment. 317 00:19:57.720 --> 00:20:00.439 But then there's a more pressing issue, which is what 318 00:20:00.480 --> 00:20:03.720 got community advocates to mobilize in the first place the 319 00:20:03.800 --> 00:20:08.080 impact oil drilling is having on people's health. In twenty eighteen, 320 00:20:08.400 --> 00:20:10.920 a report released by the Los Angeles County Department of 321 00:20:10.960 --> 00:20:14.439 Public Health from the oil and gas operations close to 322 00:20:14.480 --> 00:20:18.879 residential neighborhoods is a major risk factor. But Zerman says 323 00:20:19.080 --> 00:20:22.480 that studies like these are not backed by proper scientific research. 324 00:20:22.800 --> 00:20:26.720 Most of the agencies that actually use scientific methods to 325 00:20:26.760 --> 00:20:30.840 go evaluate our operations find that our operations are safe. 326 00:20:31.240 --> 00:20:33.600 But a lot of these, for instance, will just plot 327 00:20:33.640 --> 00:20:36.399 where people live and then they'll say oil and gas 328 00:20:36.400 --> 00:20:40.479 may be near, and so whatever problems there are, they'll 329 00:20:40.560 --> 00:20:43.800 attribute it to oil and gas operations and discount the 330 00:20:43.800 --> 00:20:47.600 fact that they're near highways, they're near the port, they're 331 00:20:47.640 --> 00:20:50.640 near all kinds of sources of pollution. 332 00:20:51.400 --> 00:20:54.480 This is an argument you hear from the industry side 333 00:20:54.480 --> 00:20:58.320 a lot that health complaints are exaggerated or unconfirmed, and 334 00:20:58.400 --> 00:21:02.640 that there's still no actual proof directly linking oil operations 335 00:21:02.840 --> 00:21:11.280 to people's health problems. I reached out to the South 336 00:21:11.320 --> 00:21:14.800 Coast air Quality Management District. That's the state agency that 337 00:21:14.880 --> 00:21:19.000 monitors air quality, which also helped investigate Alenco. They do 338 00:21:19.119 --> 00:21:22.719 say that many health complaints may be related to proximity 339 00:21:22.760 --> 00:21:26.200 to highways and exposure to traffic pollution. But they shared 340 00:21:26.240 --> 00:21:29.399 an interesting piece of data with me that suggests that 341 00:21:29.440 --> 00:21:33.320 an active drill site can make air pollution worse. They 342 00:21:33.320 --> 00:21:37.159 took air quality data before and after Allenco stopped drilling 343 00:21:37.160 --> 00:21:40.439 in Nili's neighborhood, and they found a big improvement in 344 00:21:40.480 --> 00:21:44.240 air quality after they stopped, a nearly forty percent drop 345 00:21:44.280 --> 00:21:48.600 in methane. I asked Zerman how he can say that 346 00:21:48.680 --> 00:21:52.280 oil drilling isn't affecting people's health when sites like Alenco 347 00:21:52.520 --> 00:21:55.680 are being shut down for violations. I mean the fact 348 00:21:55.720 --> 00:21:59.040 that Alenko Energy, for example, had operations halted, you know, 349 00:21:59.119 --> 00:22:02.040 by a judge was ordered to pay a fine. Is 350 00:22:02.040 --> 00:22:03.920 that an indication of something? 351 00:22:04.200 --> 00:22:07.400 Obviously, there are going to be some instances for any 352 00:22:07.400 --> 00:22:12.440 industry where you may have one or two examples of issues. 353 00:22:12.960 --> 00:22:16.399 If you're not compliant with rules and regulations, the city 354 00:22:16.920 --> 00:22:18.840 and the Division Oil and Gas and the water and 355 00:22:18.880 --> 00:22:21.040 air districts absolutely should take action. 356 00:22:21.640 --> 00:22:25.400 Is there an actual difference in how companies are behaving 357 00:22:25.600 --> 00:22:28.880 or abiding by regulations in wealthy areas compared to less 358 00:22:28.880 --> 00:22:31.200 wealthy ones none whatsoever. 359 00:22:31.320 --> 00:22:36.080 We operate in Beverly Hills where there's oil production surrounded 360 00:22:36.080 --> 00:22:40.840 by multimillion dollar homes. We produce where the oil is, 361 00:22:41.200 --> 00:22:45.000 so we don't get to choose where our facilities are located. 362 00:22:45.520 --> 00:22:49.880 They're located where the oil is underground, and historically they 363 00:22:49.880 --> 00:22:53.040 were there first and the community built up around those 364 00:22:53.040 --> 00:22:54.320 oil facilities. 365 00:22:54.640 --> 00:22:58.000 Ziermann says that he's concerned that if more regulations are 366 00:22:58.040 --> 00:23:01.000 passed for the industry as a whole, jobs would also 367 00:23:01.080 --> 00:23:01.520 be lost. 368 00:23:01.720 --> 00:23:04.440 Now you have people in Los Angeles that have high 369 00:23:04.440 --> 00:23:07.200 paying jobs that are going to lose their jobs. 370 00:23:08.080 --> 00:23:12.720 German's organization connected me with the California Resources Corporation, where 371 00:23:12.720 --> 00:23:15.000 Mada Castro works as a well analyst. 372 00:23:15.119 --> 00:23:18.480 Both of my parents, being born in Mexico, came out here. 373 00:23:18.800 --> 00:23:21.600 My dad had two jobs. My mom worked at a 374 00:23:21.640 --> 00:23:24.640 hotel cleaned houses on the weekends just to make ends meet. 375 00:23:24.880 --> 00:23:27.600 She also thinks that there's a lot of misinformation in 376 00:23:27.640 --> 00:23:31.640 communities linking oil drilling to health hazards, and she's afraid 377 00:23:31.800 --> 00:23:34.840 that if any buffer zone law were passed, her company 378 00:23:35.000 --> 00:23:36.680 would have to shut down because we. 379 00:23:36.640 --> 00:23:41.560 Are so close to so many homes. If you're in 380 00:23:41.560 --> 00:23:44.439 this industry, and you see something like that, you definitely 381 00:23:44.480 --> 00:23:45.800 have that in the back of your mind. Every day 382 00:23:45.840 --> 00:23:49.119 you come to hear that I won't have a good 383 00:23:49.160 --> 00:23:50.639 career to provide for my kids. 384 00:23:58.440 --> 00:24:01.040 This is the type of scenario where the government is 385 00:24:01.080 --> 00:24:03.960 cut up between the interests of communities who say their 386 00:24:03.960 --> 00:24:07.119 health will be better without oil production and those like 387 00:24:07.160 --> 00:24:11.720 Maida whose livelihoods depend on oil production. If the buffer 388 00:24:11.840 --> 00:24:14.800 zone law is passed in LA or at a state level, 389 00:24:15.320 --> 00:24:17.720 it would be a major blow for the oil industry. 390 00:24:20.119 --> 00:24:22.040 But one of the reasons it's hard to get bills 391 00:24:22.080 --> 00:24:25.000 like that through the legislature is that the oil industry 392 00:24:25.200 --> 00:24:29.480 has a lot of political muscle, even in ultra green California. 393 00:24:30.920 --> 00:24:35.240 In twenty seventeen and twenty eighteen, the Western States Petroleum Association, 394 00:24:35.600 --> 00:24:39.280 which is the industry's main lobby group, spent nearly sixteen 395 00:24:39.400 --> 00:24:45.440 million dollars to persuade legislators to vote for their interests. 396 00:24:47.640 --> 00:24:50.480 A year before that, a group called the Coalition to 397 00:24:50.560 --> 00:24:54.840 Restore California's Middle Class, basically a kind of superpack, spent 398 00:24:54.960 --> 00:24:58.840 about two million dollars on eight candidates. Six of those 399 00:24:58.880 --> 00:25:03.480 candidates were led Tino and Black Democrats. That same oil 400 00:25:03.520 --> 00:25:07.360 coalition poured a ton of money into recently elected California 401 00:25:07.400 --> 00:25:12.439