Home Care In Oil City, LA

OIL CITY, LA (KSLA) - It was a bittersweet day for many teachers, parents, students and staff at Oil City Magnet School. After 91-years of operation Thursday, June 23 was the last day of school ever for the aging building.

"I actually got teared up when the board voted to close," recalled longtime principal Mike Irvin, referring to the Caddo Parish School Board's 11-to-1 vote Tuesday to close Oil City Magnet and merge with a school in Vivian.

Irvin expressed excitement about the merger but also reflected, "My children went to school here. I have grandchildren in school here. And so, not only as a vested interest as a principal but as a parent and grandparent."

Irvin helped plan the merger after discovering it would have cost $5 million to keep Oil City Magnet open another year.

Irvin wasn't the only staff member conflicted about the big changes underway. So too was the school's security coordinator David Wright who told us, "It's kind of bitter that we have to go. But, it's sweet that we are going to move."

Only about 3 dozen of Oil City's nearly 400 Pre-K through 8th grade students were even present on the final day, while the 47 teachers and staff spent much of the day packing up to make the 9 mile move north to Vivian.

Terrie Jones, a long-time teacher's aide, also known as a para-professional, expressed confidence in the future.

"I think the change is going to be good."

And many reflected on leaving this 91-year old building. That included fellow para-professional Rhonda Denoux who confided, "It's not a building, it has a heartbeat, to me."

The new North Caddo Elementary and Middle School opens August 15 with a projected enrollment of about 900 students, with room at the facility for 200 more students in the future. The consolidation is expected to save half a million dollars a year.

Principal Irvin will serve as the first principal of the new school. He said to help unify the two schools into one they will be picking out new colors, a new logo and even a new mascot. Irvin said it will be the students who make the final vote on those decisions in the first month of school.

Irvin added that they will conduct a survey of parents once the new school opens to see if they want to go year-round like Oil City Magnet did and whether they want to have school uniforms like Vivian students wore. Both of those decisions would not become effective until the following school year.

Copyright 2016 KSLA All rights reserved.

An oil pumpjack operates in the Inglewood Oil Field on January 28, 2022 in Los Angeles, California.

Mario Tama | Getty Images

The Los Angeles City Council has voted to ban new oil and gas drilling and phase out existing wells over the next two decades, a historic decision that comes after years of complaints by residents about how pollution from nearby drilling has caused them health issues.

In a 12-0 vote, the council on Friday approved an ordinance it began drafting earlier this year that will immediately ban new extraction and shut down existing operations within 20 years. The decision to ban new drilling and decommission existing wells is one of the strongest environmental policies enacted in the state, and could pave the way for other cities around the country to adopt similar measures.

Historically, environmental legislation that has originated in California has often spread to other parts of the country, such as cleaner emissions standards for cars in the 1970s. More recently, the state banned the sale of new gasoline-powered cars by 2035, and New York state soon followed suit.

There are 26 oil and gas fields and more than 5,000 active and idle wells in LA. Wells are spread out all over the city, including Wilmington, Harbor Gateway, downtown, West LA, South LA and the northwest San Fernando Valley.

The oil industry has largely opposed the city’s ban, arguing that phasing out production will make LA more dependent on foreign energy.

Hector Barajas, a spokesman for the California Independent Petroleum Association, which represents independent oil and gas producers in the state, said that 2.5 million barrels of oil produced by the city last year would have to replaced by imports from Saudi Arabia, Ecuador and Iraq given the state’s new ban. The U.S. now produces over 12 million barrels per day, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

“Our in-state oil is the only California climate-compliant oil in the world, given that oil producers must adhere to the state’s greenhouse gas reduction program and account for all emissions,” Barajas said. “Foreign oil imports are totally exempt from those requirements.”

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The council said it would ensure oil companies are held accountable for adequately plugging and completing comprehensive site remediation within three to five years of shutting down production sites.

The city is also conducting studies to determine when oil companies in LA will be able to recoup their capital investments in drilling activities. If operators can recoup those investments before the 20-year timeline, the city could require those companies to shut down production even sooner.

More than half a million people in LA live within a quarter-mile of active wells that release harmful air pollutants like benzene, hydrogen sulfide, particulate matter and formaldehyde. Nearly one-third of the city’s wells are located outside of drill sites between parks, schools and houses, and communities of color are disproportionately affected by the health impacts of those sites.

People who live closer to drilling are at greater risk of preterm births, asthma, respiratory disease and cancer, research shows. Living near drilling is also linked to weakened lung function and wheezing, according to a study published in the journal Environmental Research.

Stand Together Against Neighborhood Drilling, or Stand LA, a coalition of environmental justice organizations, said in a statement that the decision “signals that Black, Latinx and other communities of color currently living near polluting oil wells and derricks in South LA & Wilmington will eventually breathe easier.”

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CADDO PARISH, LA (KSLA) - The Caddo Parish School Board decided Tuesday to close the only school in Oil City to consolidate it with a school in Vivian. Out of 12 board members, only 1 member voted against the merger.

School officials said Oil City Magnet School needs an estimated $5 million in work to keep the school open.

"It's a 91-year old building. The cost at this time is pretty outrageous," explained longtime principal Mike Irvin.

The plan is to move Oil City's 47 teachers and staff, along with their nearly 400 Pre-K through 8th grade students 9 miles north to consolidate with the Vivian Elementary and Middle School.

Leaders say the Vivian facility is only at half capacity now, but can accommodate nearly 1,100 students.

The new school, which could go under the name "North Caddo Elementary and Middle School," would have a projected enrollment of about 900 students.

But the proposed plan hasn't sat well with some parents, many citing that they don't want their children attending school that far away.

About a dozen parents who were against closing the school, attended the school board meeting.

The consolidation will take effect this upcoming 2016-2017 school year, but the school isn't expected to be a year-round school until the 2017-18 school year.

District 1 Board Member Steve Riall said currently the schools are operated on different programs; Vivian has uniforms and Oil City is on a year-round program. Riall explained they can't implement the year-round program this year because the issue will need to be voted on and approved by the community first.

Officials also said they're trying to make the move as easy as possible on students, adding that those with uniforms may wear them and those without can get uniforms but it's not a requirement.

"Anytime you make a change like this and you're starting a new school, my main concern was take care of these kids rather than to just close the school to save money," said Riall. "I want the kids to have the best opportunity for their magnet program, the best teachers and the best staff."

The new plan is expected to save half a million dollars a year.

Copyright 2016 KSLA. All rights reserved.

On a unanimous vote, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors approved an ordinance on Tuesday, Sept. 27, banning new oil wells and production facilities in unincorporated areas, while ordering the phase-out of existing operations over the next 20 years.

The ordinance, which mirrors one being considered by the city of Los Angeles, designates existing oil wells and facilities in unincorporated areas as “nonconforming” uses, requiring them to be discontinued within 20 years.

“This is a really big step for people living near drill sites who have been disproportionately affected,” Supervisor Sheila Kuehl during the board meeting.

Kuehl added that the communities affected by pollution and the presence of oil wells and facilities are disproportionately communities of color, and that the ordinance is “long overdue.”

Various community activists and organizers spoke during the meeting’s public comment period in support of the ordinance, saying it is necessary to alleviate the public health impacts of living near oil wells and oil facilities.

Representatives of oil businesses also spoke during the meeting, asking the board to delay the vote, and accusing the board of failing to conduct more outreach to businesses about the ordinance. They also asked the board to consider the jobs that could be lost because of the ordinance.

Some critics of efforts to end localized oil drilling have also suggested it would further hamper production at a time when gas prices are soaring. But proponents have said local production represents a small fraction of gas supply. Los Angeles City Councilman Paul Krekorian told the city’s Planning Commission last week that less than 1% of crude oil processed in Southern California refineries actually comes from wells in Los Angeles.

The Board of Supervisors voted last year in support of phasing out oil drilling in unincorporated areas and barring new facilities, leading to the ordinance that was unanimously approved Tuesday. A report to the board last year found that there were 1,046 active wells, 637 idle wells and 2,731 abandoned wells within the county’s unincorporated areas.

Gov. Gavin Newsom has called for a statewide phase-out of oil extraction by 2045.

Newsom proposed new rules last October, under which new oil wells or drilling facilities in California would have to be at least 3,200 feet from homes, schools, hospitals, nursing homes and other “sensitive locations.”

Newsom cited the impacts that toxic chemicals have on communities, including asthma and birth defects. The proposal is undergoing an economic analysis and public comment before taking effect.

A USC study published in April linked living by urban oil wells with wheezing and reduced lung function, symptoms disproportionately borne by people of color in Los Angeles. In some cases, the respiratory harm rivals that of daily exposure to secondhand tobacco smoke or living beside highways spewing auto exhaust, the researchers found.

The study focused on drilling sites in two South L.A. neighborhoods, Jefferson Park and North University Park, yet could have implications elsewhere in the region. About one-third of L.A. County residents live less than one mile from an active drilling site — and some live as close as 60 feet, according to the report.

By Jill Johnston and Bhavna Shamasunder

When California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced a goal to phase out oil drilling statewide by 2045, he focused on its impact on climate change. But oil drilling is also a health problem, particularly in Los Angeles, where thousands of oil 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.

Air Pollution Rates Higher in Historically Redlined Neighborhoods

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.

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.

The City of Los Angeles currently requires no buffers or setbacks between oil extraction and homes. 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 that proximity and over a century of oil drilling in Los Angeles, there have been few studies on how it affects residents' health. We have been working with community health workers to 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 oilfield, 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.

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.

But while the governor declared that "California needs to move beyond oil," his current timeline would allow oil wells to continue operating for the next two decades. A variety of policies, including buffers, phaseouts and emissions controls, will need to be considered to protect public health and accelerate the transition to cleaner energy sources.