Is it a bad sign when the latest slogan of your righteous cause is: “It’s Not Over”?
Last week, the folks at Whittier Hills Oil Watch—a group that opposes oil drilling in a nature preserve purchased by the city of Whittier with funds earmarked for conservation—saw their cause granted a small, last-second reprieve by the courts.
With bulldozers on the doorstep, Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge James Chalfant issued a temporary restraining order that blocks grading and digging in the 1,600-acre Whittier Hills, but allows the clearing of vegetation. The city signed a deal with Matrix Oil Co. of Santa Barbara in 2008 to drill, and hopes to make somewhere between $7.5 million and $100 million a year in royalties.
The Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority, a partner of the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy, filed a lawsuit in October to block the project and was joined by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors. They claim that Whittier is using funds from Prop. A, a county bond measure approved by voters in 1992, that were clearly meant to preserve natural lands and open space. The conservancy has a particular interest in the project because Whittier used $7 million of its Prop A. funds in making the land purchase.
The suit also alleges that Whittier violated an agreement to seek prior approval from the county Regional Park and Open Space District before getting wild and crazy.
Whittier city officials disagree and the council voted unanimously to ink the deal with Matrix. They maintain that Prop. A didn’t mention mineral rights, so while the county controls the surface rights they can drill underground. The city also says it took all the necessary steps needed to sign the deal, including amending the lease for the oil drilling project to exclude the district.
The plaintiffs said that last move violated the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA).
Most of the legal arguments made in the lawsuit revolve around the handling of county Prop. A money and the consequences of not applying its resources to conservation in the Whittier Hills. But the lawsuit also makes the pitch that if the judge is going to allow drilling, Whittier should have to at least share the proceeds with the county.
The situation in Whittier is being closely watched around the state. Environmental groups expressed a fear that other cash-hungry cities and counties, having purchased land with public funds meant for conservation, would be inspired to pursue profits, instead. The price of oil was $12 a barrel when Whittier bought the land in 1994; it’s around $100 now.
While both sides prepare for a court hearing on February 21, bush is being cleared in the hills to make way for heavy machinery. Environmentalists complain that irreparable harm will be done to threatened species and critical habitat. City Councilman Bob Henderson, a prime-mover behind the project, told the Whittier Daily News that environmental concerns are being tended to.
Matrix Oil and its biologists, he said, were making 200 environmental mitigations, including the relocation of protected wood rats.
–Ken Broder
To Learn More:
Judge Halts Grading at Whittier Hills Oil Site (by Steve Scauzillo, Whittier Daily News)
Oil Company Begins Clearing Whittier Nature Preserve (by Louis Sahagun, Los Angeles Times)
Environmental Groups, State Conservancies Say Whittier Oil Project Could Open other Preserves to Oil Drilling (by Steve Scauzillo, Whittier Daily News)