A group of residents in Hermosa Beach are hoping to get ahead of a 2014 ballot measure that would lift the city's ban on oil drilling.
The effort comes on the heels of the City Council's unanimous decision to approve an $800,000 environmental review of a drilling and processing facility being proposed by E&B Natural Resources.
The facility would allow for 34 wells on the city's public works site on 6th Street and Valley Drive, about four blocks from the beach. The oil wells, which would be housed in a well cellar, would tap into oil beneath the city.
But residents who strongly oppose the project fear the project will destroy the quality of life that brought them to Hermosa Beach.
"The beauty," said Scott Frantz, a resident of the area. "Definitely, the beauty of the area is a big part of why people flock here."
Oil drilling would spoil thta, he said.
"The noise and traffic and pollution," said Frantz. "Oil drilling is the most toxic industry there is."
In 2012, the city entered a settlement agreement with another oil company, Macpherson Oil company. One of the consequences of the settlement was allowing for a ballot measure to lift the city ban on oil drilling in 2014.
In 1995, the voters of Hermosa Beach voted to make drilling for oil illegal.
This is not the first battle residents have had with oil companies. Barbara Guild, 86, led the effort to keep oil companies out of the city in 1958.
"We couldn't believe that oil would still think that they could drill in this very densely populated town," Guild said.
A spokesperson for E&B Natural Resources, also a Hermosa Beach resident, said the project would help the city maintain its quality of life, with revenue going to help roads and schools. There is no threat to the residents, she added.
"There is absoultely no drilling from off shore," said Tiffany Gau, spokesperson for the company. "There is no oil platform, no threat to ocean, and beaches from drilling under the ocean floor."
Residents had been pushing for the city's mayor to take a stand. He told NBC4 that as a neutral entity, it would be inappropriate for him to represent some constituents and not others.
"Probably not the best thing to do," Mayor Kit Bobko said. "Simply because the City council is striving to be the unbiased clearing house of fact."
Voters will take up the issue with a ballot measure in 2014 which would lift the city's ban on illegal drilling.
"If they do, it's over my dead body," Guide said.