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SACRAMENTO -- Culver
City Park will soon be free of remnants
of a deserted oil field operation -- an
eyesore and potential environmental and
health hazard -- thanks to Governor Gray
Davis and the California Department of
Conservation.
Culver City Mayor
Edward Wolkowitz will conduct a ceremony
to express the city's appreciation at 10
a.m. today at the park, 9530 Jefferson
Blvd. in Culver City. California
Secretary for Resources Mary Nichols and
Department of Conservation Director
Darryl Young are scheduled to attend.
The site, located
within the Inglewood oil field, includes
six idle wells and an associated
production facility consisting of 10
storage tanks, dehydration equipment for
separating oil from water, and shipping
lines. Two of the idle wells are
adjacent to a playground and a
skateboard park. Another is next to a
baseball diamond.
An environmental
inspector from DOC's Division of Oil,
Gas, and Geothermal Resources assessed
the site in May of 2001, and his report
raised a red flag. The inspector found
combustible gas leaks near the
wellheads, residual oil on the ground,
well cellars containing oil and water,
some unlabeled chemical drums, and the
potential for oil to run off the lease
during storms and drain into Ballona
Creek, which empties into the ocean.
Only one of the 10 tanks had fluid in it
-- about 21,000 gallons of oil and water
-- but some were surrounded by 6- to
8-inch thick crude oil that had leaked
out.
"This was a very
messy site," DOC Director Young said.
"We decided that something needed to be
done immediately. The first good rain
was going to wash oil into the street,
down a storm drain and into the ocean.
In addition, the site posed potential
physical hazards. Someone going into the
site could have been injured."
At a cost of about
$132,000, the Division of Oil, Gas, and
Geothermal Resources brought in Pacific
Engineering Contractors to clean up
surface hazards at the site. PEC
dismantled the pumping units and sold
them for scrap, demolished and removed
the tanks, and hauled away the
contaminated soil. Seven hundred tons of
soil were run through an incinerator to
remove the contaminants. Some of the
clean dirt was then brought back to the
park. That work began July 20, 2001 and
ended September 13, 2001.
"Once the
environmental and physical hazards at
the tank farms were addressed, our
attention turned to plugging and
abandoning the wells," Director Young
said.
DOGGR has contracted
with Allenco to do that work, at a cost
of about $216,000. In the plugging
process, a portable rig is placed over
the well. Cement and special drilling
mud are pumped alternately into the well
casing through tubing. When the cement
hardens, it stops oil, gas and water
from entering the well and migrating to
the surface. The mud acts as a secondary
barrier.
One well has been
plugged and abandoned already. The work
is ongoing and should be complete within
several months. All that will remain
where the wells and pumping units were
will be graded soil.
Oil production began
in the park area in the early 1940s. The
City of Culver City acquired the park
site in 1977. When the Blackhawk Oil
Company deserted the field in 1991, the
city began to worry about potential
health and safety risks, as well as the
aesthetics of having all the associated
machinery in a park setting.
"The city didn't have
the money to dispose of the equipment
and plug and abandon the wells, so the
Division of Oil, Gas, and Geothermal
Resources stepped in and took decisive
action," said Secretary Nichols, who
heads DOC's parent agency. "This is a
good example of cooperation between
state and local government to solve a
problem."
Since 1976, the
Division of Oil, Gas, and Geothermal
Resources has conducted the plugging and
abandonment of 768 hazardous and
idle-deserted wells around the state at
a cost of nearly $10.9 million, which
comes from an assessment on the
petroleum industry. This year, 58 wells
are scheduled for plugging and
abandonment, including those in Culver
City. This is the first time DOGGR has
dealt with wells in a city park.
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