Venice and Del Rey Oil Fields

In the early 20th century, many Venice residents were thrilled by the discovery of oil reserves in their city. In 1930, the Los Angeles Times reported that “hundreds of Venice residents” attended a city planning board meeting to implore for more oil drilling ( “Venice Oil Please Heard” ). This community claimed that the oil reserves were a “Christmas present” that could provide them with greater fortune and jobs (1). The only documented opposition to this initiative came from the Board of Playground and Recreation, as they were concerned that oil drilling would pollute local beaches (1). Nonetheless, the city of Venice disregarded these warnings and proceeded to install oil derricks.  

This photograph was taken circa 1940 of the Ballona Wetlands. In the background, a field of oil derricks on the Venice peninsula can be deciphered, revealing the swift growth of the oil industry. Prior to the Ballona Wetlands being conquered by the Spanish in 1952, this area was inhabited by the Tongva. The land was primarily used for harvesting and hunting. ( History of Ballona Wetlands ). In the late 19th century, the Ballona Wetlands became a port for small boat hunting (History of Ballona Wetlands). Once oil reserves were discovered in the early 1920s, the population and urbanization of this region grew tremendously.

October 28, 1976: The Stinnett Oil Company was fined $1,875 for illegally releasing sulfides and creating a public nuisance in Venice. Illicit emissions occurred on multiple occasions and violated California’s health and safety codes. Over 50 complaints from nearby residents and workers were also filed regarding the sulfides’ odor. In addition to the fine, Stinnett Oil Company was placed on probation. This event reflects the dwindling of Venice’s oil industry, as much of this oil field was capped during the late 1970s due to residents’ immense grievances with oil production in this neighborhood ( Venice Community Housing ). 

In 1991, the last 10 oil wells located in Venice were capped after the Damson Oil Corporation filed for bankruptcy. These specific wells, which had operated since 1965 and generated $4.6 million in royalties which helped fund a  “bike path, the Cabrillo Marine Museum, lifeguard stations and restrooms”  (Doherty). Though the wells produced 3.6 million barrels of oil overall, they had been mostly bringing up water in recent years. The clean-up cost around $2 million of Angeleno tax dollars due to the removal of any possible hazardous byproducts left behind. Infrastructure including pipelines and a 14-foot concrete wall also had to be removed. This would pave the way for a massive $10 million makeover for Venice in 1993 which  “refurbished”  the famous Venice boardwalk (Ellingwood). 

As reported by  ABC7 Los Angeles , construction workers hit an abandoned oil well located in Marina Del Rey, California on January 11, 2019. According to  EcoWatch , This caused an eruption of natural gases, primarily methane, as well as mud and water. As seen in the  YouTube video  above published by SecretChimp, a construction worker was sprayed by the mixture of natural gasses and had to escape using a safety rope. The eruption spewed about sixty feet in the air and lasted for about ten minutes. Residents surrounding the oil well were not informed of the eruption until January 18, 2019. Although the air was tested by fire officials and was deemed safe, residents were still angered by the amount of time it took government officials to inform them of the eruption (Powell).

According to  EcoWatch , Los Angeles City Councilman Mike Bonin commented on the incident via Facebook. He stated, "I am particularly concerned at the lack of notification to neighbors, and at continued risks of leaks due to a potential lack of structural integrity of the well, which state officials said was a 'serious concern.' This incident also raised concerns about other old and abandoned wells in the area". The oil well that erupted in Marina Del Rey was not properly sealed, which is also the case with other old and abandoned wells nearby. This eruption brought awareness to the risks of oil wells not being updated to present day standards. 

March 23, 2021: A trash fire burned 5 acres of the Ballona Wetlands ecological reserve and the Playa Del Rey oil storage facility. The fire raised the immediate attention of local residents who are demanding action regarding the threat this particular oil facility poses to their community. The oil field, operated by the  Southern California Gas Company  has  six ongoing lawsuits  against it as the push to end residential oil drilling increases. The Culver City Council and Los Angeles City  Councilmembers Mike Bonin and Paul Koretz  are pressuring SoCalGas to close its facility, asserting that the area is "heavily populated and the site could present danger for residents". Grassroots groups, such as the Food & Water Watch group, deem the Playa Del Rey oil storage facility unnecessary as clean energy policies get adopted. Food & Water Watch group member, Ethan Senser, addresses an additional salient point prompting oil facility closure—imported gas. Senser notes that "Ninety-nine percent of the gas we consume in California is imported, coming over the pipelines through Utah, Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, Texas and Canada". If only 10% of California's gas comes directly from the state itself, there is no dire need for more oil storage facilities and stagnant ones should be eradicated.

 Scott Culbertson Interview Audio 

The Ballona Wetlands sit between Marina Del Rey and Playa Del Rey, surrounded by landmarks such as Loyola Marymount University and Los Angeles International Airport. Once a lush source of food for the Tongva tribe, today the land remains largely barren after the construction of Marina Del Rey in the 1960s, according to  Friends of Ballona Wetlands . 

Construction has not been the only troubling part of the wetland’s history, as The Southern California Gas Company (SoCalGas) has had the mineral rights to the wetlands for decades allowing for 16 oil wells to be placed within the wetlands, according to the executive director of Friends of Ballona Wetlands Scott Culbertson. Friends of Ballona Wetlands is currently working to restore the wetlands with the help of Heal the Bay and SoCalGas. 

“SoCalGas had to be cajoled, but they ultimately agreed to remove, at their own expense, all 16 of the wells within the boundaries of the ecological reserve,” said Culbertson. He explained that six of the wells may be used to redrill, which SoCalGas refers to as “replacement wells”, according to the  Ballona Wetlands Restoration Project Environmental Impact Review . 

“If you’ve driven down Culver along the wetlands, you’ve seen this big scary-looking thing where there was what looked like a drilling rig and it held all the sound baffling up, that’s the first well that they were removing,” said Culbertson. “Some folks wanted to conflate that and say that they were drilling. The reality is that [the] drilling rig that was there was to remove old infrastructure deep underground so that they could cap it.” 

Many believe that SoCalGas should have no hand in the restoration of the wetlands, and have questioned organizations like Friends of Ballona Wetlands and Heal the Bay’s interests.  According to an article in the local Patch , Friends of Ballona Wetlands and Heal the Bay received substantial sums from SoCalGas.

The Sierra Club, an environmental nonprofit, released  its own statement  stating concern for the wetlands and the “private gas and oil interests” surrounding it. The statement argues that the current plan for restoration would allow SoCalGas to install new oil infrastructure and allow the Playa Del Rey (PDR) gas storage facility to keep operating on the wetlands grounds. 

Mike Bonin, 11th district Los Angeles city council member, has even recently called for SoCalGas to shut down operations of their PDR oil facility,  according to the LA Times . The article states that the PDR facility has been compared to the facility involved in the Aliso Canyon gas leak, the largest gas blowout in U.S. history according to the  County of L.A. Public Health . 

Playa Del Rey has a population of 16,203 and houses that resemble that of a typical close together suburban setting. A blowout the size of the one in Aliso Canyon would be inevitably worse—even “tragic”,  according to the LA Times . Adding to the list of possible disasters, the facility is also at risk for wildfires and tsunamis, according to  ABC 7 .

Culbertson seems to be optimistic despite the controversy surrounding the restoration project. “There are folks that are trying to obfuscate and say that the whole long-term restoration plan is to benefit the gas company,” said Culbertson. “That’s not the reason at all, the reason is to restore a very degraded wetland, increase biodiversity, return wildlife, open it up for public access…”

Alida Roos, a community activist and junior at University of California Davis, found herself living back in her Venice hometown due to pandemic hindrances. Roos is hands on in the Venice community and has set up her  own Linktree  that directs community members towards funds and trusts—Whistles for Asian elders, Palestine COVID-19 Relief Trust, and the Venice Community Fridge Fund. I was curious to find out her opinions on the lack of conversation surrounding LA’s oil infrastructure, specifically in Venice.    

Roos was not fully aware of her home’s close proximity to active oil sights. “I know that there are still operating oil plants in LA, but not the Venice area”, she said. The lack of transparency between oil companies and the communities their facilities inhabit is frightening. Locals are ill-prepared in case of an emergency.

“I think that there definitely needs to be education about what corporations like these have done to people, which won’t come from the government, but [the education] should especially be  targeted towards areas at the risk”, Roos adds. “I haven’t seen any signs about what to do in the case of an oil leak or explosion”. 

Roos feels that figures in power are not likely to disband an infrastructure that has accumulated wealth. “Throughout U.S. history and currently, corporations are allowed to poison local populations, and even more so marginalized populations”.  “Cities Sacrificed on the Altar of Oil:  Popular Opposition to Oil Development in 1920s Los Angeles" deems this to be a consistent theme as public concerns over unprecedented levels of oil pollution in LA have been expressed since the early 1920s, and oil regulation was then assigned to the government. 

When asked for her opinion on governmental oil regulation, Roos feels that “oil should be nationalized” and that as a community we need to “drastically change our consumption habits and the way we structure our world”. She advocates that natural resources should be nationalized in order to keep oil corporations from profiting off of raw materials and increasing power. If LA truly wants to support environmental reform, it will require an assessment of larger corporations and dismantling their infrastructures.   

Roos concludes, “If I could do it myself I would disband those corporations and allocate their means to those especially impacted globally. I would not allow for oil corporations to write the rules of society’.

This response was given by a real estate agent at Halton Pardee + Partners after receiving inquiries about oil drilling in the Venice area. Dr. Sarah Elkind, an environmental history professor at San Diego State University explains that the dismissive response was inevitable. "People living near many of LA’s oil fields don’t know how close they are to oil production. That’s partly on purpose — oil companies tried to make wells inconspicuous in response to residents’ concerns about noise, pollution, and the danger of fire. An interesting contrast between Venice is Signal Hill, where the drill pads and wells are super obvious. (...) Also property owners’ [and realtors] drive to keep values up when they sell, which means no discussion of oi

The map above offers a contrast between the number of oil wells and the number of alternative fuel stations in Playa Del Rey, California. According to T he U.S. Department of Energy , “Alternative fuels are derived from sources other than petroleum”. A few examples of alternative fuels are electricity, biodiesel, and ethanol, which all produce far less pollution than petroleum-based fuel. In addition, alternative fuel can “reduce U.S. dependence on petroleum, lessen the impact on U.S. consumers of spikes in the world price of petroleum, and improve U.S. national security through reductions in imported petroleum”. This suggests that alternative fuel poses a threat to the petroleum industry, which could ultimately lead to a decline in demand for oil.

According to  LA GeoHub , there are only 10 alternative fuels stations within a one-mile radius of the Del Rey oil field. Only one of those alternative fuel stations is located within the city of Playa Del Rey. In order to distinguish the connection between alternative fuel stations and oil wells, the city of Manhattan Beach, CA can be used as a contrast. In the city of Manhattan Beach, where there are far less oil wells than in Playa Del Rey, there are approximately four alternative fuel stations according to  LA GeoHub . Although Manhattan Beach does not have significantly more alternative fuel stations, this small increase in stations may suggest that there are less alternative fueling stations in cities with more oil wells. This poses an interesting question: Do oil companies have control over the installation of alternative fuel stations in close proximity to their property.