Updated: Hermosa Voters Roundly Reject Oil-Drilling Project

Voters in Hermosa Beach handily defeated a proposed oil-drilling project in the city tonight, while La Habra Heights residents rejected restrictions on fracking and a ban on the drilling of new wells.

Hermosa Beach’s Measure O would have allowed a drilling project proposed by E&B Natural Resources Management Corp., with proponents contending in a ballot argument that the project would have generated “hundreds of millions of dollars of new revenue,” that could be used to hire firefighters and police officers, while upgrading the city’s infrastructure.

Backers insisted that the drilling proposal would 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, however, argued 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 contended the project will lead to increased air pollution, and also claimed any accidents at the drilling site could have endangered lives.

In La Habra Heights, meanwhile, voters 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
• Photo Credit: Wikipedia Commons