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- City of Carson Fracking Vote Today 5 p.m. (Food&Water Watch - after jump below)
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Full Press Advisory on Today's City of Carson fracking moratorium vote - received from Food and Water Watch:
WHEN: 5:00 p.m. on Tuesday, March 18, 2014
WHERE: Carson City Hall, 701 E. Carson St., Carson, CA 90745
WHO/WHAT: The Carson Coalition along with Food & Water Watch and 100 Carson residents. The press conference will feature speakers from the Carson Coalition and Food & Water Watch to urge the City Council to adopt a ban on all new oil and gas production in Carson after the moratorium expires.
VISUALS: Residents from Carson will wear face masks to emphasize the threat of new oil and gas drilling to public health and safety. Residents will carry signs calling on Carson to ban oil and gas drilling.
BACKGROUND: In 2012, the Occidental Petroleum Corp. (Oxy) proposed a plan to drill 202 new wells in the Dominquez Oil Field within Carson City. Oxy held a public meeting regarding the details of the project and disclosed that fracking would be a technique used to extract the oil. Residents contested that with fracking’s terrible track record of water contamination, air pollution, negative health impacts, and decreases in property values, the project should not be allowed in Carson. The next day, Oxy responded with an open letter claiming they decided not to use fracking due to public concern, but they reserved the right to use fracking in the future at any time.
In January 2014, the Draft Environmental Impact Report (DEIR) was released on the proposed Oxy project. Over 200 Carson residents attended Carson City Hall on February 11, 2014 to protest the inadequacy of the report. Since Oxy will move its headquarters to Houston and sell off its assets in California to other companies, residents argued that DEIR is inadequate and must be thrown out due to the change in ownership. Councilmember Robles agreed with this sentiment at the City Council meeting on March 4, 2014. Councilmember Robles suggested that the City Council consider a moratorium on fracking similar to what Los Angeles passed in February 2014 in order to protect the public health, safety and welfare of Carson residents.
This Tuesday, the Carson City Council will vote to pass a temporary moratorium on the drilling, re-drilling or deepening of any new or existing wells within the jurisdiction of the City of Carson for 45 days in order for the city attorney and council staff to fully asses the right to place regulations or ban altogether oil and gas drilling. The moratorium will need 4/5 votes from the full city council.
The Carson Coalition is a diverse organization dedicated to informing our community for the purpose of preserving a clean and safe environment, also focusing on societal improvements. This group has been active in providing services in the community, fighting for the rights of Carson citizens for over two decades.
Food & Water Watch works to ensure the food, water and fish we consume is safe, accessible and sustainable. So we can all enjoy and trust in what we eat and drink, we help people take charge of where their food comes from, keep clean, affordable, public tap water flowing freely to our homes, protect the environmental quality of oceans, force government to do its job protecting citizens, and educate about the importance of keeping shared resources under public control. www.
