Way to go Culver Crest Neighborhood Association!! It is generally acknowledged (and yes, we are tooting our own horn here) that our involvement was one of the key factors in the County of Los Angeles’ extending the moratorium on all new drilling and expanded drilling until May 27, 2008. During this time, the County will be conducting a full scope Environmental Impact Report (EIR) with personal supervision by L.A. County Supervisor Yvonne Burke. To say the least, we have been extremely successful due to the diligent efforts of your board and with the immense help of Ken Kutcher.
On June 28, 2007, the County mailed to interested parties a notice of their intent to conduct the EIR and involve the community in a series of scoping meetings in order to obtain input from interested parties. Your CCNA Board Member Antoine Durr hosted such a meeting in April where more than 20 of your neighbors appeared to identify areas of concern.
A Community Standards District (CSD) has been proposed by the County to update and regulate the activities of the PXP oil fields including development standards, operating requirements and procedures for all oil and gas operations in the Baldwin Hill.
Are we done? Is it over? Not even close! Next for us is to monitor the progress of the EIR. To that end, you are urged to attend the Scoping Review meeting, to be held at the Veterans Auditorium on July 24th. This is a public meeting to examine if the scope of the EIR is complete, or if there are any additional unaddressed concerns. We already know that some of the odor issues have been significantly downplayed, so please attend that meeting and make sure that your concerns make it into the Scoping Review process.
The County’s website for the EIR process is: planning.co.la.ca.us/spBH.htm. It describes all the various stages and schedules, and has a history of the issues. Additionally, the process has been covered in depth by Gary Walker of the Culver City News, highlighting CCNA board members for the past several months.
