E&B Testing in City Yard Rankles Residents

Updated 8:40 p.m. May 9 with information on permit from City Manager Tom Bakaly.

When Mike Collins woke up Tuesday morning and went upstairs to make coffee, he saw something he didn't expect: a rig being used in the city's Public Works Yard at 6th St. and Valley Drive.

The Hermosa Beach resident is used to seeing the yard; his home overlooks it, so he's keenly aware of the proposed oil production project awaiting a vote by city voters.

But he was dismayed when he saw and HEARD the noise the procedure was making. He hadn't been prepared for it.

"i could hear the motor operating," he said of the equipment being used to test soil and groundwater. "It sounded like hammers were banging on pipes," too, he added.

As you might guess, Collins is opposed to the oil drilling proposal E&B Natural Resources has submitted to the city, a proposal that turns the city yard into an oil production operation.

"I'm going to be able to hear what's going on over there," he told Patch. "This is just a harbinger," said the man who grew up in oil town.

E&B and the city confirmed that work was being done at the yard on Tuesday and would continue for a day or two. On Thursday, city yard staff said the work had been completed and the holes created for it filled with concrete.

The soil and groundwater testing are part of the remedial action plan the city requested in appendixes D through G of the project application, E&B spokesperson Tiffany Rau told Patch.

The testing is part of the site assessment, she said, adding that the city asked for three more samples that included groundwater "to determine if there is an existing level of contamination from prior use of the site."

If there is contamination, E&B will be required to remediate it if they are allowed by the city's voters ot move forward with the project, she said.

For the city's part, City Manager Tom Bakaly said E&B is allowed to do some work such as testing with "notification and express permission from us."

He said the work has to be approved, allowed and supervised by the city.

Some residents have been rankled by the lack of notice about the work. Others think the city may have needed a permit from Los Angeles County for the work to be done and aren't sure the city secured one.

Bakaly returned a Patch phone call Thursday night to say E&B is the entity that would need to have secured a permit.

As for the noise, he said Wednesday evening that he'd probably talked to 3 people that day who had concerns. One he explained what was being done, he said they were OK.

Rau said she didn't think the rig being used for testing would correlate to an oil drilling rig but that she wasn't certain. She also said she didn't how the height of the equipment in use Tuesday would compare to the height of the oil drilling rig proposed in the project application.

She added that the sound expected from the drilling project [should the voters approve it] "has been termed barely audible to inaudible."

As for the testing that began Tuesday, Bakaly said the city gave a head's up to some community members "who are sensitive to the project" and that a notice to residents in the area was not issued.