Hermosa Beach

Hermosa Beach Residents Reject Oil Drilling Proposal

Hermosa Beach's Measure O would have allowed a drilling project proposed by E&B Natural Resources Management Corp

Voters overwhelmingly rejected a proposal for additional oil drilling in Hermosa Beach Tuesday night.

However La Habra Heights residents shot down a measure that would have banned the drilling of new wells and restricted drilling techniques such as fracking.

Hermosa Beach's Measure O would have allowed a drilling project proposed by E&B Natural Resources Management Corp, however final results showed 78.9 percent of voters had voted against.

The defeat of the proposal will prove costly however, as it means the city will have to pay E&B $17.5 million stemming from a lawsuit over drilling. 

Supporters said in a ballot argument the project would have generated "hundreds of millions of dollars of new revenue,'' that could be used to hire firefighters and police officers, while also providing funds to upgrade the city's aging infrastructure.

The drilling proposal would also not involve fracking or off-shore drilling platforms and "no permanent equipment visible above the walls at the currently contaminated city maintenance yard."

Opponents of the project claimed the project would have included a roughly nine-story-tall drilling rig, 30 oil and gas wells and miles of dangerous underground pipelines that would "threaten our quality of life and our health."

They said the project will lead to increased air pollution, and also claimed any accidents at the drilling site could have endangered lives.

"By rejecting Measure O, Hermosa Beach votes are protecting underground aquifers, which supply water for 11 cities in Los Angeles County, from the threat of toxic wastewater, which would, had Measure O passed, have been dumped into four injection wells," said Breanna Norton, Southern California organizer with Food and Water Watch.

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In La Habra Heights, meanwhile, voters on Tuesday defeated Measure A, which would have barred the drilling of new wells and the use of certain drilling techniques, most notably fracking. 

Proponents claimed fracking presents a health risk to residents, but opponents said such a ban would have meant a severe limiting or end to any drilling in the city, costing the municipal coffers about $370,000 a year, or about 13 percent of the general fund.

City News Service contributed to this report

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