Protect LA County Residents' Health and Safety from Oil Pollution
Los Angeles County Department of Regional Planning
LA County is updating its oil and gas regulations for the first time in over 40 years—but their initial proposal is highly problematic. Instead of the recommended 2,500-foot separation between oil wells and homes and schools, they are only calling for 500 feet of distance for newly permitted wells, leaving communities who already live near existing oil wells behind.
Hundreds of thousands of Los Angeles County residents live near oil and gas drilling sites where toxic, health-threatening pollutants are released into the air, water, and soil. Because of long-standing systemic racism, low-income Black, Indigenous, Latino, and Asian Pacific Islander residents of LA County are hit hardest. Numerous studies link proximity to oil and gas wells to health impacts including cancer, premature mortality, asthma, and other respiratory ailments. We must protect our communities and demand environmental justice by calling for an end to oil drilling where we’re living.
We know scientific research recommends 2,500-foot setbacks to protect public health from impacts of oil and gas extraction.
Right now we have an opportunity to make our voices heard to protect our communities. Tell the agency to prohibit any drilling within 2,500 feet of a home, playground, hospital, or school.
Big Oil has been aggressively fighting against any changes to oil regulations in Los Angeles and across California. Don’t let the oil companies drive this process—submit your letter today!
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Los Angeles County Department of Regional Planning
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[Your Name]
Establish rules to protect public health from the impacts of oil and gas extraction.
For decades, LA County’s oil industry has been given free rein to drill for health-threatening fossil fuels in the center of our communities, in our backyards, on school campuses, and next to our parks. LA County residents living near active oil wells are exposed to carcinogenic chemicals, asthma attack-inducing emissions, and the threat of catastrophic accidents or explosions.
While Los Angeles County claims to be a leader on climate action, LA County Supervisors and Department of Regional Planning regulators allowed the oil industry to sacrifice entire communities with disproportionate impacts concentrated in low-income communities of color.
LA County Supervisors and the Department of Regional Planning (DRP) must establish rules to protect public health from the impacts of oil and gas extraction. I urge LA County Supervisors and the Department of Regional Planning to phase out oil production in vulnerable communities by creating a 2,500-foot health-and-safety buffer zone between fossil-fuel infrastructure and homes, schools and other sensitive sites. No Drilling Where We’re Living!