Homes and oil don't mix in Montebello Hills

The Montebello Hills are riddled with old oil wells, and one company intends to keep drilling at a proposed hillside development of 1,200 homes; but are oil and homes really a good mix?  The Sierra Club’s Save the Montebello Hills Task Force says no, and is working to stop the housing project.

The developer, Cook Hill Properties LLC, is aggressively marketing a plan to build homes in the middle of the working oil field. The plan would irretrievably damage the last remaining open space hills, which are listed in the city’s general plan as a scenic resource.

First, the highest elevations in the hills would be reduced by 100 feet. Then the canyons on the southern edge of the hills would be filled in to raise them by 110 feet, negatively impacting the prestigious La Merced neighborhood adjacent to the hills. The city would no longer have “hills.” Instead there would be three large plateaus densely packed with housing.

Creating this new “flattened-hills” configuration would take 10 years and involve moving 6 million cubic yards of dirt. The air quality and noise issues are obvious.

Even more troubling is that proposed homes would be built on top of the active oil field. The developer claims the wells will be on the east side of the property, away from the housing tract; but half of them would be as close as 150 - 170 feet from the nearest residences. Transformers for each well pad would also be in close proximity to residences.

Support facilities for oil production include a gas plant, stock tanks and wash tanks. The gas plant, which processes highly flammable gases produced on site, would be located as close as 730 feet from the nearest residences. It is worth noting that a safety video produced by the U.S. Chemical Safety Board featured a re-creation of an explosion involving a nearly empty oil field storage tank which resulted in the tank’s lid being thrown 750 feet.

 "Then there is the problem with oil spills."

The developers pie in the sky claims regarding the alleged financial benefits to the city of their plan are speculative and self-serving at best. A prior fiscal impact analysis prepared for the developer showed a net deficit to the city’s general fund. Of the proposed 1,200 homes, 756 would be attached dwellings commonly known as “condos.” 

The presence of this housing tract could negatively impact housing values in nearby neighborhoods. In addition, all hillside developments bring long term maintenance costs even without the occurrence of landslides, fires and earthquakes to which properties such as this are vulnerable.

Additional concerns regarding this proposed project include traffic impacts, fire safety, earthquake risks, methane gas migration, exposure to cancer-causing chemicals from oil production, water supply issues, wildlife corridor impacts, destruction of critical habitat, changes in the “micro-climate,” the presence of both a hazardous liquid and high pressure natural gas pipeline in close alignment to each other, and the project’s proximity to a superfund clean-up site. The project also would have an adverse effect on a core population of California gnatcatchers, the small songbird listed as “threatened” under the Endangered Species Act.

Oil spills an issue

Then there is the problem with oil spills.

Houston-based Plains Exploration & Production (PXP) operates 96 producing wells and 46 water injection wells in the Montebello hills.  According to a report filed with the California Emergency Management Agency, PXP spilled "10 barrels of produced water and 40 gallons of crude oil" on April 19, 2011.  Any spill of more than 42 gallons - which equals one barrel of oil – must be reported to the state agency.  The spill contaminated a storm drain outlet and small pond connected to the Rio Hondo River.

Members of the Save the Montebello Hills Task Force notified local media about this spill, and news reports appeared in EGP News and the Los Angeles Times.  The Task Force also provided evidence to the media that this was not the first spill in this area.

Official records

Official records obtained by the Task Force revealed that an estimated “2 to 3 barrels of oil” contaminated the same storm drain in September 2010.  This spill was unreported until discovered by a vector control officer inspecting the river for mosquitoes. This past August, the L.A. County District Attorney’s Office filed charges against PXP for allegedly failing to report the 2010 spill.

Why do these seemingly small spills matter?  The Rio Hondo River flows into two separate ground-water recharging structures, the conservation pool behind the Whittier Narrows Dam and the Pico Rivera Spreading Grounds below the dam.  Henrietta Salazar, a newly elected director of the Pico Water Board, said she was “very concerned” about the threat of crude oil contaminating the underground aquifer which provides drinking water for the city of Pico Rivera.

According to the Washington State Department of Ecology, “All oil spills cause environmental damage, regardless of size. Oil is toxic to the environment and the damage starts as soon as the oil hits water. A single quart of oil has the potential to foul more than 100,000 gallons of water.” 

The Montebello Hills Task Force members are resolved to educate the public and elected officials about the inherent risks of this proposed housing development and the many benefits of preserving the hills as open space.  They attend all Montebello City Council meetings and regularly speak on these issues.