NEWS RELEASE
COUNTY OF LOS ANGELES
Contact: Judy Hammond, Director of Public Affairs, (213) 974-1363
Brian Lew, Assistant Director, (213) 974-1652
Russell Fricano, Regional Planning, (213) 974-4885
REVISIONS TO BALDWIN HILLS COMMUNITY STANDARDS DISTRICT PROVIDE INNOVATIVE REQUIREMENTS THAT ADDRESS POTENTIAL OIL FIELD IMPACTS
The Los Angeles County Department of Regional Planning has revised the draft Baldwin Hills Community Standards District (CSD) and prepared a final environmental impact report associated with the CSD.
If approved by the Regional Planning Commission on Wednesday, Oct. 8, the regulations would be the most stringent in the state and provide innovative approaches to addressing potential oil field impacts.
Planning Director Bruce McClendon said the development standards and restrictions in the CSD were developed based on the mitigation measures identified in the environmental impact report, comments from public agencies and input from local residents.
Key features of the revised draft CSD include the following:
· Fire protection audits.
· Health risk assessments.
· Air quality monitoring of drilling, re-drilling, and reworking operations.
· Emergency response plan and a community alert notification system.
· Monitoring of vapor release on existing oil tanks and abandoned wells.
· Use of state-of-the-art emission control devices on diesel engines used in the drilling and construction operations.
· A noise attenuation program.
· A limit on the number of new or re-drilled wells per year.
· Monitoring of geotechnical conditions with measures to avoid or address subsidence.
· A program to address spill containment and the monitoring of groundwater quality.
· The use of flaring to reduce vibration and mitigate air quality impacts.
· Requirements for the removal of unused equipment and a landscaping, re-vegetation and screening plan to beautify the site.
· Environmental compliance coordinators to work with Regional Planning in monitoring the operator’s compliance with technical provisions of the CSD.
· Ombudspersons to respond to and address complaints on a 24-hour/7 day per week basis.
· Environmental quality assurance program and a safety inspection, maintenance and quality assurance program.
· A citizens advisory panel to provide a mechanism for community oversight.
· A multiple agency coordination community comprised of responsible public agencies to monitor compliance.
· Financial mechanisms to ensure funding of monitoring, compliance and site remediation.
For questions or more information about the Baldwin Hills CSD program, contact Dr. Russell Fricano of the Community Studies I section of the Department of Regional Planning at (213) 974-4885 or at COMMPLAN@planning.lacounty.gov .
--lacounty.gov--
No comments:
Post a Comment