A Westside oil site was supposed to undergo regular reviews. That didn’t happen

Members of a neighborhood group are calling on the city to begin a “long overdue” review of the oil facility at Pico Boulevard and Doheny Drive in Los Angeles. When Westside residents battled plans to step up production at an oil drilling facility on Pico Boulevard, they picketed outside the site and once brought children to a city hearing with signs pleading, “Don’t you care about us?” Their fight ultimately went from City Hall to the courtroom and ended nearly two decades ago with a legal settlement meant to protect neighbors from noise and fumes. The planning department, he said, would generally be responsible for following up on such city reviews, but “I don’t know enough about what did or didn’t happen in the intervening 15 or 20 years to ascribe responsibility.” Koretz aide Andy Shrader said that the councilman was unaware until recently of the agreement with Neighbors for a Safe Environment, which requires the operator to initiate the review process. Shrader said they had asked city staffers to “reinitiate the settlement agreement terms with the new operator, who might have been ducking them or may not have been aware.” The Pico Boulevard site is now operated by Pacific Coast Energy Co., a successor to Breitburn.