A Cost Too High to Bear?

Even without spouting a single drop of oil, the Whittier-Puente Hills supply a bounty of “revenues” in terms of elevated hillside property values, a chance at life for wild animals and plants, and countless recreation hours for millions of park-deprived visitors.

In short, it’s hard to put a price tag on the hills – our region’s most precious and most characteristic resource.

When the city of Whittier and Santa Barbara-based Matrix Oil announced a partnership last week to explore drilling for oil in a 1,280-acre preserve bought in 1995 with Proposition A monies, the false assumption being made is that now, after a 13-year hiatus, the land will be productive again.

No, it is already productive: as an oasis of open space in an otherwise urban setting.

Instead, the City Council and the oil company must ask: Will renewed oil production stymie the already productive uses provided by the Whittier-Puente Hills? If the answer is “yes,” then oil exploration should be taken off the table. Because selling out your city’s own back yard – a ring of precious chaparral-and-oak canyons – for some quick cash falls on the negative side of the ledger.

With so much to lose, the city – owner of the land – must proceed with extreme caution. We’re relieved to learn that it will accept nothing short of a full-fledged Environmental Impact Report paid for by Matrix. However, the city as the lead agency, gets to hire the preparer and oversee the environmental investigation.

We will hold the city to assurances given to our editorial board by city Councilman Bob Henderson. At stake is Henderson’s reputation as a caretaker of the environment, not to mention the very hills he and the Puente Hills Landfill Native Habitat Preservation Authority and the Wildlife Corridor Conservation Authority helped preserve for perpetuity.

Too often, EIRs are bought and sold by the developer, meaning information is incomplete or slanted in the project’s favor. This process must be accurate. The report must be true. We believe it can be since the city of Whittier is somewhat torn between raising what could be up to $6 million in oil revenues a year, and preserving the hills it worked so hard to reclaim over the last several decades. The residents of Whittier and all area cities deserve to know the truth about what more active oil wells will do to the hills. And residents must have numerous opportunities to give their input.

The EIR must be a vigorous, honest assessment of how drilling for oil will or will not have lasting effects on the area’s residents, wildlife and aesthetics.

Will drilling be noisy? Will the noise of pumping affect the fly patterns and behavior of wild birds? Can drilling – and the resulting pipelines – be done unobtrusively? By undergrounding pipelines, can the damage to the environment be minimal, even negligible? Last but not least, can more oil wells and the equipment that goes with such production be built and maintained without increasing the risk of fire or explosion to hillside residents?

These are just some of the questions that need answers.

(c) 2008 San Gabriel Valley Tribune. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.