Vista Hermosa - LA Oil field
Vista Hermosa is a community next to downtown Los Angeles, it also sits atop what was once the top-producing oil field in California – the Los Angeles City Oil Field. Many of the wells have since been abandoned, and while other nearby fields in wealthier neighborhoods have had their wells capped, many of the wells under Vista Hermosa have not been. Residents, especially those who grew up in close proximity to these wells, have suffered health issues from their long-term exposure to the toxic emissions from them.
Now major housing developments are going up all over Vista Hermosa, something that is needed to address the housing crisis in Los Angeles. But developers in their haste to build these new units, are building directly over these abandoned well sites and refusing to spend the money to cap them. The result is these wells are becoming inaccessible, and should a leak occur or emissions increase, there will be no ability to get to the wells and take any safety measures to address the problems.
Writer Marissa Pianko and I did a story on the Vista Hermosa neighborhood and the residents who are fighting to save and make safe their community. It was published in DeSmog back in 2020, here is the link to the story.
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