The Secret, Toxic Oil Wells Underneath Los Angeles
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- Опубликовано: 20 дек 2021
- Before Los Angeles had Hollywood, it had oil - a lot of it. And the toxic legacy of that oil boom still lingers below the city streets. Hundreds of deserted, unplugged oil wells are scattered underneath neighborhoods like Echo Park, potentially leaking toxic gases. Dena Takruri goes to L.A. to investigate this hidden plight.
#LosAngeles #California #Oil
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More excellent journalism from Dena! Love it. ❤
Whats her ful name??
She's good!
I had no idea that the toxic oil wells in LA County were ever considered secret. I remember seeing them pump away all while growing up in the 1960s there.
1960s? Haha 😆 People who are living in LA now had witnessed in 1960s though most of them are born in or after 1980s
The fact that there are so many agencies and institutions that should nominally oversee these wells but all refer to other departments is a classic way to diffuse responsibility so no one can be blamed and nothing can be fixed. Truly shameful. Thanks for the great reporting on this!
DOGGR
Not to mention all the useless regulations and costs
Most wells are owned by Chevron, Marathon or Exxon Mobil
I honestly had no idea that this was happening or of the oil well historyin LA!!🤯 And having worked in the gas industry, I had the same concerns as mentioned in this documentary: how is the unproperly capped oil well NOT going to mix the methane gas being fueled to homes? And also: one lit spark 🔥 could blow up a town block. This whole situation is volatile & scary.
That could happen but there has been little to none explosions. The oil wells are an old problem that has to be dealt with as they start to have a problem, some will never be an issue whereas others will be the devil in disguise for the future generations.
i was 9 in 1963, the family was driving through Bakersfield, CA, I thought it was the most ugly place i'd ever seen..........................oil wells pumping.
"We estimate the number of abandoned wells to be at least 4,000,000 wells for the U.S. and at least 370,000 for Canada." - Methane Emissions from Abandoned Oil and Gas Wells in Canada and the United States
Danny Luna the Echo park resident cites, that back in the day, it was the wild, wild west back then. But, nothing really has changed in America. Because it's still very much a wild, wild west right now.
It's criminal to densify an area with so many bad health effects.
Excellent report! You’ll never find this kind of journalism on CNN or FoxNews.
If you live in California, you can use this tool to see if you live near an idle or active oil well: www.latimes.com/environment/story/2020-03-05/deserted-oil-wells-los-angeles-toxic-fumes-cleanup-costs. Let us know what you find.
Also make sure to check out our previous episode from Kern County where Californians love big oil more than Texans -> ruclips.net/video/oIdFLXAB4kw/видео.html
I put an address is and this source gives totally different info that CalGem. CalGem makes it seem like the wells around the address are plugged and this link shows that they are idle or not in the same places.
that explains the pollution and temps in LA, so it isn't JUST commuter traffic but also methane leaking from the wells.
Only out-of-state cars emit exhaust fumes here in California. In-state cars have "California Emission."
You’re really that dumb to think car traffic doesn’t cause it either.
You're telling me the state of CA just had to look up the original oil well plans to find the well, but instead were lazy and said "it's not our responsibility" only until proven wrong and that it was a potential health hazard? This place is literally hell.
The same thing is happening in Alberta, Canada. Look up the news program W-5 and dead oil wells.
gotta love the superfund sites, the people who made all this cash back in the day can be tracked down and should be. they made the money they need to pay to fix the problem. so you can guess from the runaround who made that money and is still living off that money, look who is in charge and who blocks the legislation that would fix it.
i should also point out that IIRC there are court records from the 70's over various holders of the old oil leases. I cant remember the details but it was a fairly big deal because it drew in the likes of the reagans and those kind of folks.
@@eawisner 🤔 if it now profitable to pump/pipeline oil from the old well now and or remove the under ground PSI and smells?
@@richardprice5978 would be if you could get it out without running foul of regulations. california oil was and is pretty dirty stuff. the more valuable part is the holders of that oil stock because all those wells are owned by someone you betcha, dont matter how many name changes those corps where all bought up by someone and they bear the liability. that is the other side of all that "you dont own the mineral rights under your land" stuff.
@@eawisner Hey don't you talk bad about oil Pelosi and her friends the airline companies need that oil for their jet fuel.
3:48 shocking and I used to go to that elementary school.
So much to worry about as it is, thank you guys for doing your part.
Props on the Rustee Juxx instrumental in the beginning.
1. Measure trace gases using a meter in suspected areas
2. Report metrics to EPA, state regulators
3. Bring up at town hall, city meetings, petition, demonstrate
I totally love this investigative journalist. I think my property has a hidden oil well underneath the dirt on my Tennessee mini organic farm. When we were fencing I smelled gas when I used my auger in a certain area and we don't have a gas line anywhere.
Natural gas has an odorant added to it after it's so produced so the gas can be smelled by humans. Otherwise it's odorless. Natural gas from a well would not have the odorant added to it and therefore wouldn't have a detectable smell.
No f***in joke i almost threw up when i saw LA with all those wells everywhere like that. I knew the dawn of the industrial age was disgusting but god damn , wtf.
All the lefties that moved to California from other states have caused far more damage to California than any other action.
Never seen a oil well look like that looks more like a septic tank.
Very unsafe living environment.
Wow, I wonder how much of the local pollution is coming right out of the ground.
Good topic to talk about!!!
Toxic surface too and that's no secret! Thanks conservatives!
Loved it ❤️
Echo used to be a black neighborhood!
The blacks were run out.
Thank you!
4:11 that transition was so cool
An international well control services company needs to be employed to find and properly cap all of the orphan wells. I’m sure ground penetrating radar can help find all of the so called “missing” wells. Great reporting!!
1 million to plug a damn well??? There’s your problem. They don’t care about your health.
Sooo none of the 2 billion dollar police funding could have been diverted to capping these wells 🤔😤
Gas ⛽ your city is above explosive gas 😜
Love Dena!
Just dump your garbage on the wells. They will be full in no time.
My great uncle worked on those wells before moving back to Morocco in the late 50s
I lived there most my life. Wow..
The videography in 10:10 is really cool! #drones
That whole area is an oil patch. Why do you think the La Brea Tar Pits are a thing?
I like how there's light-hearted music in the background while she's explaining Hydrogen Sulfide.
Over by LA brea tar pits pil bubbles out of the ground near by.
It leaks out of the shore at Long Beach where Marineland used to be.
They have all the regulations. You would think. Capping oil Wells on properties On new development would be one of them.
At least the 1982 Blade Runner movie got it right. The movie takes place in dystopian Los Angeles. It's moar leik the writers already knew back then. Lol
Dystopian movies almost always take place in well known, prosperous cities. It gives them a perfect contrast of developed reality( real Los Angeles) vs fictional wasteland( dystopian Los Angeles). Dystopia can’t take place in a rural area because there wasn’t anything there before and there is still nothing there so they can’t manufacture a sense of loss.
@@jamesbaxter222 Umm... The movie Interstellar takes place in a dystopian rural farm that has been ravaged by global dust storm. I am sure there is a lot of oil and gas towers in rural LA back then as well as in the city. The reasons these towers are being disguised as buildings because people hates the look of the towers just like people hates power lines towers and wind turbines. Before, the company just burnoff the gasses that came out of the wells. But you can't do that on the city. That's the job for cars and trucks. In rural area there's not a lot of people that can (could?) complaint. Hence, technically the people in LA is actually living in dystopian reality.
Hmm. I wonder if we have those here.
Edit: yes, right up the road.
Holy H2s..
get whole house filter. LOLs...
The video of the guy on the rig, that's clearly not oil because the substance is clear that's natural gas, also the sulfur smell the landlord was experiencing was not from oil, but from the water underground, and finally the orphan wells underneath the street would not hurt the environment or the people because there is already asphalt covering the oils wells and it keeps the fumes from escaping the places were oil gas did come out the wells were not even coverd with anything.
🇧🇩💕AJ+
That's why on my fevereat news channel is AJ+
Wow
Check my comment👆
It would be better if the oil was imported from another country instead of having the mess in your own back yard? Kern county might have something to say about that.
Back in 89' when i first arrived to LA....i seen the 4 artificial oil islands in the harbor of Long Beach....the "THUMS Islands" or "Astronaut Islands". Because the city had a beautification law....the.creator of the islands had to disguise the islands & sound proof it from the mainland so the locals in Long Beach & San Pedro wouldnt see the oil drills, the pumps, & hear the constant drilling coming from the island. If you look at the islands, its quite beautiful but a little strange.... especially the condo looking buiding which now we know is the main oil driller. Also Signal Hill, a small area north of Long Beach clearly has drill pumps on top of its hill ...guess what they pumping ? It aint water...!
🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔
Orphan Wells.... 🤦🏽♂️
Now they have "Adopted Wells", all over the world... 😂
I thought capitalism was suppose to address issues like this
It never does.
ha that's a good one. you mean because of Capitalism they don't address it. Profit comes first
Well maybe capitalism was too busy making video games for you. Lol "capitalism only sucks when I'm not making money" definitely got some Hasan and vaush fanbiys in here
@@SamaelMoneyStein it's destroying the planet and exploiting the global south, but at least "i can has ViDeO GaMeS".
I come from a poor capitalist nation where millions go hungry and have no shelter, i'd chose to live in Cuba anyday.
@natali maybe those poor countries need to take a break from having kids. Might want to take care.of yourself first before popping out kids
LAs biggest secret is that nobody runs it...
One day I'll became king of the golden state California love
A million dollars to plug a hole? Wow.
It's all about the money
Gas kicks
Could be, might... so not a problem then.
Is Dena wearing a Tank Top or a T-Shirt in this video, it keeps changing anyways Dena is Super Ssssmart
True journalism.
What would happen if say, some random arsonist, throws a flare down one of these wells???
Then we shouldn't be paying for high gas prices. Im fully against stopping the production of oil in California. I believe in clean energy but we need oil and gas in the short term. I prefer safety measures to reduce the problem of oil drilling and get those holes exposing LA to fumes exist. Then we use that money and competition to evolve the clean energy
So many different people to blame for this mess.
Dena so smart and oh so attractive!
👍
Anne Boonchuy and the Plantars are going to have some new worries.
Good work. Hey would you like to make some money. Good. Get a city contract to help solve the plastic waist issue. Plug the wells with ground plastic then top them of with concrete. A win win
We grow up with them all over la calif i mean off of freeways every where
Dena is life
The price of European colonization and American Expansionism coming back to bite ya.
The oil wells were there first.
LA is a new Baghdad
There's black gold in those hills, we rich, we rich LOL.... i dont think they will ever be able to plug them all up as there are existing structures on top of the wells.. it would just cost too much... sad
Bring this up to Garcetti:😐😐😐😐😐😐
One of the largest oil resivours in the united States is under the city of los angeles in case anyone wants to know ! All oil field workers know about this ! North of LA IS KERN COUNTY AND ITS A BIG OIL PRODUCER ! COME ON PEOPLE let's get real ! La brea tar pit are not there in coincidence ! There is a lot of oil in california
Maybe Mexico should get reparations for all the land & resources the USA stole from them. In 1849 when gold was discovered in California, it was Mexico here.
Yeah that, AND all the native inhabitants of what's now called US! Land stolen by European colonisers!
@@hahaLOLhaha72 the whole continent then
@@chou3595 yeah
War and conquest baby that’s how it works
Lost war. Sore losers
10 bbls is not very much, insignificant
This is a huge concern, but I'm a little disappointed in the level of reporting done here. From this piece, I can tell there's great risk to developing on top of these wells, but aside from that, everything is built on emotional response. Sure, you can say it causes various medical conditions, but where's the proof. Can you get data to show these areas are at higher risk of developing a specific type. Can you get a third-party air quality consultant to test random sites around the neighbourhood to show what is present at these sites and report on how bad it is and what that means to the residents?
Clearly this is an issue, but you're leaning more on emotion rather than data.
Wtf are u smoking bro this is news, not a scientific paper. Do you need cops and forensics to give u data as well when the news report an accident?
When an accident is reported on the news, you get the facts: What was the incident, how many people were affected, what is the potential cause of the incident, who are involved with rescue efforts, who will be involved with the clean up and remediation efforts, etc. Those pieces are "reporting" on the events and are fairly cut and dry in terms of the immediate facts. You can get controversial stuff that may come out of it, these would normally be covered in follow-up pieces.
This piece is "investigative journalism" which involves a ton of research to uncover something much bigger than an individual event. These require a lot of work and are meant to bring up difficult questions and maybe even some even more difficult answers. But that's the job, journalists should be reporting facts and how that relates to us. This isn't an ask for them to do science, someone has to have done that already and if they haven't, journalists can initiate the question for more research. Dena and her team called around for comments with the big long trail of "blame of authorities", but did they call any institution that may have done science on this particular case? They reached out to the Sierra Club, they must have done the numbers on it. Where are they? Where's the maps showing cases of particular diseases overlayed with these unplugged wells. That's public data that most people can put together. I don't need the full breakdown, but it would help me get an idea of the scale of the problem.
Any kind of journalism should help define the facts of a topic. I know I can rely on the information if I feel like I can use this information to hold my position in a debate. I don't have that confidence in this case.
Plus, I can safely say we both agree on the message this report is raising. Why are you being so defensive? Is it not OK for me to ask questions they may have forgotten? Am I not allowed to request for more clarity? If anything, by asking these questions, I can help them identify gaps in their journalism which they can address in follow up pieces. If anything, anyone raising questions on these pieces are only helping Dena and her team create more effective journalistic pieces that would attract bigger audiences and be used as proofs for policy change. Wouldn't you want that?
I love my oil.
Me too !! I grew up on the Derrick floor. My family lived to their 80's- 90's and 100 !!! Man can you imagine how old they would be if they had not worked on the wells ????
Of course in the black n Hispanic area.
The should uncap the wells and let the H2S run through LA for a good cleansing
Wherever he goes on this planet he destroys…….
talk about dirty secrets.
What is Gavin Newsom doing about this?
L.A. sucks , abandon it .
It's like the film there will be blood with Daniel day lewis 💙 😀 ❤️
damn i like her beauty
Im so happy i wasnt born or live in America
I may not know a lot about this but from the video it seems these are only in colored neighborhoods I doubt this would be in white neighborhoods especially Hollywood
LOS Angeles. Not Las Angeles. Say it right lady.
Haha how to fight gentrification RIP
It's killing you too. Some of the water pipes still have lead pipes and when they remove those you get lead poisoning. So really who's laughing because rather rich or poor you too are over this stuff.
In your face Los Angeles
Leave LA
You will be struggling for fresh water soon.
Look, there is only 1 solution to this problem. Relocate all people out of this area.
oh sure, relocate people out of a densly packed urban sprawl
@4T3hM4kr0n! and why not?
@4T3hM4kr0n! you want them blown out and then your guts will be filled?
@@bossssss you're beyond stupid, don't comment further until you've gotten a brain
this is a moral and health crisis.
哈哈哈哈哈哈，America
If anyone can make a few billion dollars dont forget to forget i gave you this idea
America’s zit
Not filled with “cement”. Concrete. Accuracy in reporting, please.
No one cares lady.