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Los Angeles had oil wells pumping in its neighborhoods when Hollywood was in its infancy, and thousands of active wells still dot the city.

These wells can emit toxic chemicals such as benzene and other irritants into the air, often just feet from homes, schools and parks. But now, after nearly a decade of community organizing and studies demonstrating the adverse health impacts on people living nearby, Los Angeles’ long history with urban drilling is nearing an end.

In a unanimous vote on Jan. 24, 2023, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted to ban new oil and gas extraction and phase out existing operations. It followed a similar vote by the Los Angeles City Council a month earlier. The city set a 20-year phaseout period, while the county has yet to set a timetable.

As environmental health researchers, we study the impacts of oil drilling on surrounding communities. Our research shows that people living near these urban oil operations suffer higher rates of asthma than average, as well as wheezing, eye irritation and sore throats. In some cases, the impact on residents’ lungs is worse than living beside a highway or being exposed to secondhand smoke every day.

LA was once an oil town with forests of derricks

Over a century ago, the first industry to boom in Los Angeles was oil.

Oil was abundant and flowed close to the surface. In early 20th-century California, sparse laws governed mineral extraction, and rights to oil accrued to those who could pull it out of the ground first. This ushered in a period of rampant drilling, with wells and associated machinery crisscrossing the landscape. By the mid-1920s, Los Angeles was one of the largest oil-exporting regions in the world.

Oil rigs were so pervasive across the region that the Los Angeles Times described them in 1930 as “trees in a forest.” Working-class communities were initially supportive of the industry because it promised jobs but later pushed back as their neighborhoods witnessed explosions and oil spills, along with longer-term damage to land, water and human health.

Tensions over land use, extraction rights and subsequent drops in oil prices due to overproduction eventually resulted in curbs on drilling and a long-standing practice of oil companies’ voluntary “self-regulation,” such as noise-reduction technologies. The industry began touting these voluntary approaches to deflect governmental regulation.

Increasingly, oil companies disguised their activities with approaches such as operating inside buildings, building tall walls and designing islands off Long Beach and other sites to blend in with the landscape. Oil drilling was hidden in plain sight.

Today there are over 20,000 active, idle or abandoned wells spread across a county of 10 million people. About one-third of residents live less than a mile from an active well site, some right next door.

Since the 2000s, the advance of extractive technologies to access harder-to-reach deposits has led to a resurgence of oil extraction activities. As extraction in some neighborhoods has ramped up, people living in South Los Angeles and other neighborhoods in oil fields have noticed frequent odors, nosebleeds and headaches.

Closer to urban oil drilling, poorer lung function

The city of Los Angeles has no buffers or setbacks between oil extraction and homes, and approximately 75% of active oil or gas wells are located within 500 meters (1,640 feet) of “sensitive land uses,” such as homes, schools, child care facilities, parks or senior residential facilities.

Despite over a century of oil drilling in Los Angeles, until recently there was limited research into the health impacts. Working with community health workers and community-based organizations helped us gauge the impact oil wells are having on residents, particularly on its historically Black and Hispanic neighborhoods.

The first step was a door-to-door survey of 813 neighbors from 203 households near wells in Las Cienegas oil field, just south and west of downtown. We found that asthma was significantly more common among people living near South Los Angeles oil wells than among residents of Los Angeles County as a whole. Nearly half the people we spoke with, 45%, didn’t know oil wells were operating nearby, and 63% didn’t know how to contact local regulatory authorities to report odors or environmental hazards.

Next, we measured lung function of 747 long-term residents, ages 10 to 85, living near two drilling sites. Poor lung capacity, measured as the amount of air a person can exhale after taking a deep breath, and lung strength, how strongly the person can exhale, and are both predictors of health problems including respiratory disease, death from cardiovascular problems and early death in general.

We found that the closer someone lived to an active or recently idle well site, the poorer that person’s lung function, even after adjusting for such other risk factors as smoking, asthma and living near a freeway. This research demonstrates a significant relationship between living near oil wells and worsened lung health.

People living up to 1,000 meters (0.6 miles) downwind of a well site showed lower lung function on average than those living farther away and upwind. The effect on their lungs’ capacity and strength was similar to impacts of living near a freeway or, for women, being exposed to secondhand smoke.

We found evidence that oil-related contaminants, including toxic metals such as nickel and manganese, are getting into the bodies of the neighbors. This indicates contamination may be getting into the community.

People living near Los Angeles oil wells have less lung strength and capacity than average for the region, on par with living near a freeway, researchers found. The study involved 747 people living within 1,000 meters of an oil well. The chart shows how far below average each group was.

Downwind less than 200 meters

Downwind 200-1000 meters

Upwind less than 200 meters

Lung strength

Lung strength is how strongly a person can exhale. Lung capacity, shown here as the difference in forced vital capacity compared to average, is the amount of air a person can exhale after a deep breath. The average forced vital capacity for a healthy man is about 4,800 milliliters, and about 3,700 ml for a healthy woman.

Chart: The Conversation/CC-BY-ND Source: Johnston, et al 2021 Get the data Download image Created with Datawrapper

Using a community monitoring network in South Los Angeles, we were able to distinguish oil-related pollution in neighborhoods near wells. We found short-term spikes of air pollutants and methane, a potent greenhouse gas, at monitors less than 500 meters, about one-third of a mile, from oil sites.

When oil production at a site stopped, we observed significant reductions in such toxins as benzene, toluene and n-hexane in the air in adjacent neighborhoods. These chemicals are known irritants, carcinogens and reproductive toxins. They are also associated with dizziness, headaches, fatigue, tremors and respiratory system irritation, including difficulty breathing and, at higher levels, impaired lung function.

Vulnerable communities at risk

Many of the dozens of active oil wells in South Los Angeles are in historically Black and Hispanic communities that have been marginalized for decades. These neighborhoods are already considered among the most highly polluted, with the most vulnerable residents in the state. Residents contend with multiple environmental and social stressors.

The city’s timeline for phasing out existing wells is set for 20 years, leaving concerns about continuing health effects during this period. We believe these neighborhoods need sustained attention to reduce the existing health effects, and the city needs a plan for a just transition and cleanup of the oil fields as the areas transition to new uses.

This updates an article originally published Feb. 3, 2022.

CASPER, Wyo. — La Cocina owners Jim and Andrea Childs can feel the decades-long connection their restaurant has earned in the Casper community. In fact, they can often see it right in the dining room.

“I was in the dining room, and people are eating here still that were dating, have gotten married, had children and now have grandkids,” Jim said. “We’ve been open a long time.”

La Cocina Mexican Kitchen started in the mid-’90s, when Jim and Andrea rented a tiny kitchen in a Mills bar, selling Mexican food based on Andrea’s family recipes. They soon moved across the street into a former BBQ before buying a North Casper building in 2001. In 2012, they moved to a former Denny’s location at 321 East E St. Now, after nearly three decades, they’re in the process of starting from the ground up with their own custom build in the growing The Compass development.

In every move since the start, Jim said they’ve essentially been putting a round peg into a square hole, dealing with a building’s existing layout and kitchen.

“We’re super excited to have a kitchen that we’ve designed,” he said. “We’ve put pen to paper to design something that’s going to flow very nicely.”

Jim describes the kitchen as a “cannon” design, where prep starts at one end and ends up straight down at the other. The kitchen would be open, facing the dining area.

“We can feel connected to the people we serve and they can be more connected to us and see the kitchen and the pride in what we do, and how we like to make people happy,” he said.

The finished building will measure out at around 3,800 square feet, which is smaller than their current building but eliminates wasted space. They’ll seat the same number of people, around 108, and be better prepared for the growing takeout and delivery demands.

“We’ll also have a patio that seats another 30 to 40, and of course a full bar,” he said.

They plan on keeping the current location open until the new one is ready, which they expect to be sometime in August. An earlier March goal was scrapped due to various weather and construction delays, but he now says the building is right on schedule.

Jim and Andrea are getting help with the business from two of their kids. Their daughter Abigail runs social media and marketing, and their son James is their kitchen manager. Jim says Abigail — who has a political science degree from the University of Wyoming — has committed to work through the transition, but might decide to head back to school at some point.

“They sky’s the limit,” he said. “I’ve never wanted our dream to be their dream.”

The new design and concept could end up as the blueprint and seed for further expansion down the road, including potentially opening La Cocina restaurants in other communities.

For the time being, though, Jim said the thrill of opening their first-ever custom-built restaurant is itself a dream come true.

The Los Angeles City Council has voted 12-0 to ban new oil wells within the city and to phase out all current oil wells within 20 years or less.

Los Angeles may not be famous nationally for oil, as that industry is typically associated with other states, and California is thought to be an environmental leader. While the state does push forward environmental policy, there is actually a long history of oil production in Southern California, with the state at one point making up 38% of the entire US national supply of oil, largely due to production from these fields in LA.

But California’s oil industry has been in decline from its early dominance. As the state moves away from fossil fuels (while other states don’t), tens of thousands of wells have gone idle statewide, and the companies operating them often do not have the money to close them down properly, leaving a potential multibillion-dollar problem for the state going forward.

The oil fields in LA are often situated directly in dense areas of the city, with consequent health effects on the populations nearest to them. And importantly, these areas of the city tend to have higher concentrations of Black and brown residents, meaning the negative health effects of oil drilling are felt in a racially disproportionate manner.

Beyond the global climate and air pollution effects of burning oil, oil drilling has negative local effects on human health. It causes cancer, liver damage, immunodeficiency, neurological problems, respiratory issues, congenital disorders, and the list goes on.

LA county’s oil wells have been called the largest system of urban oil production in the country due to their proximity to dense housing. Currently, there are 26 oil and gas fields and 5,000 wells in the city, not all of which are active, and two drill sites on city-owned properties. The highest concentration of them is in the Harbor region, near the Port of Long Beach.

The push to ban these wells was largely led by local political groups like Stand Together Against Neighborhood Drilling, East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice, and Communities for a Better Environment. They have been working for decades to stop oil drilling in the city.

Los Angeles city’s new move not only bans new oil wells but also directs all oil companies operating in the city to plan to shut down in a maximum of 20 years. Beyond that, the city will conduct its own studies to determine whether individual companies operating in the city can recoup their investments in less than 20 years. If they can, they may be forced to shut down even sooner.

The vote was opposed by the California Independent Petroleum Association, which represents independent oil and gas producers in California and threatened to explore legal avenues to block the move. They incorrectly claimed that oil production does not have detrimental health effects, even though it does.

They also suggested that this would result in increased imports of oil into Los Angeles and, therefore, more associated pollution from oil tankers in the Port of Los Angeles and the Port of Long Beach. Finally, they pointed to a 2020 study by a consulting group that claimed that the oil industry is responsible for $250 million in tax revenue for the city. This number represents about 2% of LA’s budget, or about as much as the city spends annually on public parks.

Electrek’s Take

Well, this is just great news that we hope to see in more places as soon as possible – and on the same day as the first ban on natural gas by a county on the US East Coast. Let’s hope this momentum goes somewhere.

I’ve seen and driven past these oil fields many times, and they sure do contribute to a sense of blight in the city. In fact, when I went up to test drive the electric Arcimoto FUV at a nice urban park, we didn’t realize this park was right next to a massive oil field, which led to an ironic juxtaposition in the background of one of our rolling shots:

But that’s just aesthetics. The real issue here is the health of the residents. And while it will take a while for that to turn around, the earlier we start, the better.

In particular, the fact that the city will conduct independent studies to determine how long it will take companies to recoup investments is hilarious to me. I love the idea that the city will shut down wells as soon as they become profitable.

Of course, I’d rather they shut them down immediately and let the oil companies lose money, as they deserve to for harming people and lying for so long, but at least it’s one step better than letting them continue to profit for decades.

The oil companies’ objections to this are also ridiculous, as most oil industry statements are. First, they start with a lie stating that oil drilling doesn’t harm human health, as we’re used to hearing from them.

But then they turn around and claim that shutting down oil production will actually be bad for the environment because then Los Angeles will have to import more oil from dirty polluting oil tankers. So… you’re saying oil is the problem, then? Well, good point! Maybe we should shut it down then! Thank you, California Independent Petroleum Association – good suggestion!

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CASPER, Wyo. – As the youngest daughter of busy restauranteurs, Abigail Childs spent a lot of time inside the family restaurant.

She has memories of being home sick from school, sleeping in the office while her parents worked. She started helping with the family business around age 12.

“I grew up in this restaurant,” she said on a recent morning, sitting inside an empty La Cocina dining room before opening for the day. “It is like my second home.”

The “second home” was her first home when it came to family Thanksgivings.

Her parents, Jim and Andrea Childs, opened La Cocina, which literally means “The Kitchen,” in the mid-’90s serving Mexican food right out of a small kitchen in a Mills bar.

Soon they bought an old BBQ joint across the street and established a restaurant. In 2001, they purchased a building in North Casper, which is now Little House of Burgers. They moved to their current location at 321 E. E St. in 2012.

Thankful for Casper’s support, Jim and Andrea decided to start serving free community Thanksgiving meals in 2001, the year of their North Casper move.

Abigail was a 1-year-old baby at the time, so for her, the family Thanksgiving was always spent at their restaurant.

“It just became a tradition,” she said. “After we served the guests, we’d have our own Thanksgiving feast and a lot of people would stay.”

“I just remember my mom and my brother talking to people who had no place to go,” she said. “They can come here and it’s warm and the food’s good, everyone’s so nice. It’s just the best feeling.”

For her father, Jim, childhood Thanksgivings weren’t nearly so warm.

As a kid, Jim lived in California with his mother. The two had a difficult relationship, he said.

“She sought religion, so she changed churches all the time, and she was always dragging me to singles groups.”

“For Christmas I’d come here to be with my dad and grandparents at their house, but for Thanksgiving, the start of the holiday season, I was always at some stranger’s house.”

Although Jim never experienced a happy family Thanksgiving at home, he and Andrea eventually decided their children deserved one, so they stopped serving community meals at the restaurant.

Jim says they spent the holidays at home or in Torrington with her mom’s family, where Abigail got to experience Mexican-American Thanksgivings.

The children eventually moved on, including Abigail, who finished her degree in political science at the University of Wyoming this year. While deciding on her next life step, she’s returned to the family restaurant and helps manage staff, among other things.

While she appreciated her parents’ intent with their Thanksgiving decision, she still deeply missed her childhood tradition.

It’s with her urging, and her hands-on help, that the Childs have decided to revive the community feast this year. She’s now leading the charge, in part by organizing a new base of volunteers to help on the big day.

Jim says during their first Thanksgiving he served 92 dinners. This year they plan to serve 660. It’s a traditional house-made turkey and mashed potato feast, using supplies he’s ordered from his usual rep, he says.

Jim’s excitement is impossible to hide as he describes the Thanksgiving recipes and techniques.

“It’s a Martha Stewart recipe with garlic, rosemary, butter and broth,” he says. “I use two electric knives and I cut them until I can’t hold onto that knife, then I use the other one and keep going.”

Abigail says the staff gets the day off, so she’s looking for volunteers and will take monetary donations to help cover some of the food costs.

Meals are served from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., but volunteers should show up from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., she said. Windy City Delivery will also volunteer time to deliver meals as well.

Jim talks openly about his struggles with addiction over the years, as well as finally reaching sobriety.

“All that happened while running this place and working, and restaurants are stressful,” he said, “but we got through that, our family got through that.”

“So we have a lot to be thankful for.”

He’s also thankful his youngest daughter, who grew up in her parent’s restaurant and has rebooted their real family Thanksgiving tradition.

“She’s gonna change the world,” he said.

La Cocina is located at 321 East E Street. Free Thanksgiving meals will be served from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Anyone wanting to volunteer can call 307-439-5795.

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors has taken the first steps to phase out oil production in unincorporated areas, including the Inglewood Oil Field — a move that environmental justice advocates celebrated as historic after decades of fighting.

On Wednesday, the board unanimously voted to ban new oil wells and evaluate the status of existing ones while changing their zoning to “nonconforming.”

The environmental impacts of oil drilling in L.A. County have fallen disproportionately on people of color.

Supervisor Holly Mitchell, who wrote two of the drilling-related motions that passed Wednesday, said 73% of county residents who live near an oil well are people of color.

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According to one of Mitchell’s motions, proximity to oil drilling can increase the risk of asthma and heart disease, as well as the chance of low birthweight babies.

The Inglewood Oil Field, one of the largest contiguous urban oil fields in the country, has averaged 2.5 to 3.1 million barrels a year for the last decade, according to its website.

The surrounding Baldwin Hills/Crenshaw area is 71% Black and 17% Latino.

“In addition to this equity issue, which should concern all of us, oil and gas drilling is contributing to the climate crisis, which we are collectively bearing witness to every single day,” said Mitchell, whose district includes the Inglewood Oil Field.

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Existing oil wells cannot legally be shut down until owners recoup the costs of drilling.

Under a motion the board passed Wednesday, the county will conduct an amortization study to see whether costs have been recouped for each site.

The “nonconforming use” designation approved by the board would then allow the county to revoke drilling permits.

Environmental justice advocates celebrated the move.

“We are grateful to the L.A. [County] Board of Supervisors for this important first step toward protecting frontline communities from toxic air in their neighborhoods, and bringing about a future free from fossil fuels that we all deserve,” said Martha Dina Arguello, co-chair of STAND-LA, in a statement.

Alexandra Nagy, the California director at Food & Water Watch, urged Gov. Gavin Newsom and the L.A. City Council to make similar moves in their jurisdictions.

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Leaders in the fossil fuel industry argued that L.A. County residents will rely more on imported oil, resulting in more tankers entering the ports and more trucks on highways.

Oil production in unincorporated parts of the county totaled 2.4 million barrels in 2019, according to the California Independent Petroleum Assn.

“Los Angeles residents consume nearly a half million barrels of oil every single day,” Rock Zierman, chief executive of the petroleum association, said in a statement. “Why any supervisor would want to get that oil from supertankers from Saudi Arabia and Iraq into L.A.’s crowded ports instead of from California workers is a mystery.”

One of the motions approved Wednesday requires the county to develop a plan for cleaning up idle oil wells, which number more than 600, in unincorporated areas.

Another motion passed Wednesday will help fossil fuel workers find new jobs.

Culver City recently approved a similar phaseout of oil drilling over the next five years.

Tim Jones has lived in Baldwin Hills Estates, close to the Inglewood Oil Field, since 1989.

He has advocated for a drilling ban for years and is frustrated that the supervisors are only taking action now, as South L.A. is being gentrified by white families.

He is skeptical that the measures passed Wednesday will force an end to drilling. He also fears that idle oil fields will create a new environmental hazard.

“The only thing that I think is worse than having that oil field in proximity of my home right now would be to have it completely abandoned,” he said. “That would cause the biggest disaster of all. Now I’ve got a multimillion-dollar home across the street from a toxic waste site.”

Times staff writer Sammy Roth contributed to this report.