Near downtown Los Angeles, a developer is building dozens of apartments in Echo Park on property that contains deserted oil wells, some of them uncapped. Battalion Chief James Hayden, whose responsibilities include the Los Angeles Fire Department’s oil and gas program, acknowledged that the city hadn’t provided adequate oversight of the industry. “It’s about shortsightedness.” The AllenCo Energy Inc. drill …
A reciprocating piston pump, commonly known as a pumpjack or rocking horse, pulls oil from the ground in a Wilmington neighborhood. Los Angeles has had a “lax and reactive” approach to checking to see if oil and gas drilling sites are operating in line with city conditions, City Controller Ron Galperin said in a new report Wednesday that calls on …
