The city of Hermosa Beach, California, completed an HIA and environmental impact report on an oil production project proposed by E&B Natural Resources. The company sought to build a 1.3-acre urban drilling site at Sixth Street and Valley Drive for exploration and directional drilling to extract oil and gas from offshore and onshore tidelands and onshore upland areas within the city, as well as underground pipelines. The proposed site is currently used by the city’s public works maintenance yard, which would require relocation.
The HIA concluded that, except for the risk of a well blowout accident, the proposed project would have no substantial impacts on the health of the community.
Outcome
In March 2015, voters rejected Measure O, which would have modified the citywide ban on drilling and enabled E&B to move forward with the project.
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This Health Impact Assessment Report first appeared in The Cross-Sector Toolkit for Health. The Cross-Sector Toolkit for Health was originally developed by the Health Impact Project, formerly a collaboration of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and The Pew Charitable Trusts. The creation of this resource was supported by a grant from the Health Impact Project. The views expressed are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Pew Charitable Trusts, or the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
