By: Mariangela Velazquez
Maricruz Ramirez, a community organizer with the Center for Race, Poverty, and Environment, spoke about how the oil industry in Kern County impacts the environment and how the community can come together to combat the impacts.
Q: How does oil production in Kern County impact air quality, groundwater, or soil conditions?
A: There’s a lot of ways that, yeah, the oil industry impacts the environment here when it comes to land, air, water, wildlife, human health, just like the mere extraction and transportation of oil and gas itself causes a methane gas to be released into the atmosphere and that is a big source of air pollution, which is why, you know, year after year after year, Kern County always seems to have the number one, air pollution problem in the whole United States, it’s because of that. So that’s one way that we are affected and, that pollution, unfortunately causes the people living here to have so many negative health effects you know, when it comes to respiratory issues, there’s so many, I think there was a, yeah, there was a study that I read about just air pollution in the entire United States and how it’s responsible for, I think over 400,000 asthma attacks and over 2000 new cases of asthma every year.
So that’s definitely a big deal and something that could be avoided. It doesn’t have to be this way. And then yeah, the extraction of oil and gas itself requires so much water and, you know, that impacts local water resources, especially in areas where water is already scarce. And we’ve seen that here, talking with community members in Shafter and Arvin, and how their water is impacted by, you know, drilling nearby. Yeah, so these are some major ones that come off the top of my head.
Q: What are some concerns about long-term environmental impacts in areas around the oil plants or drill sites?
A: Well, I guess it is an environmental impact, but it doesn’t have to be. So, a lot of the time, orphan wells, which they are abandoned by developers, they’re just, you know, left behind they continue to be very, dangerous and pose significant health and environmental threats to communities, even when they’re not actively drilling, they’re just left behind because they still leak methane and methane is such a dangerous greenhouse gas that, a lot of the times it’s naked or invisible to the human eye. It doesn’t really have a scent that you can notice, but that can not only hurt the people who are around it to breathe it in, but it’ll also leak into groundwater and other critical infrastructure. So that’s one way that environmental harm can happen, and unfortunately, we’ve seen methane leaks happen here in Kern. I believe it was two or three years ago, and the Morning Star community over in, like, Northeast Bakersfield, they did have a bunch of methane leaks and, thankfully, you know, no one’s died, but they do have a lot of negative health effects, things from the headaches to asthma attacks to uh issues with the respiratory. So that’s just one example that comes to mind.
Q: Can we reduce the damage caused by the oil industry, and if so, what are some ways we as a community can reduce the damage caused by oil plants?
A: We need to get these orphan wells that have just been abandoned. They can be plugged, and they can be, you know, secured basically so that leaks don’t happen, and a lot of the time, the excuse is the drilling site, whoever owned it, is no longer around. They’ve gone bankrupt. They’re gone, and so the problem there is, well, who’s going to pay for this? Who’s the problem, who’s going to pay for it?
And, that definitely shouldn’t go to the community members and I think if, you know, community members can, rally up together and become aware of this and tell the local government or even go up to Sacramento, which is something that we do at CRPE, and just hold oil companies accountable and even though there may be smaller ones that have gone bankrupt, we still have a lot of oil development and happening here and they have the responsibility of helping exacerbate this problem that has been going on in Kern and helping with the health effects that are going on. So, I think, one way that we can all get better, and yeah, I think just in the end of it all, just community awareness. That even knowing about all these health issues and then using people power to tell local government or legislators, “hey, this isn’t okay. We deserve to breathe clean air,” and oil companies literally should pay from their pockets to ensure that we do breathe clean air.
Q: What illnesses are correlated to the oil industry in Kern County?
A: Oh, definitely a lot of the respiratory ones. Asthma is a very big one, especially among children, which is very, very scary, and again, it shouldn’t be happening. But I think we have one of the highest, if not the highest, rates of pediatric asthma in the country, cancers as well. Cardiovascular disease is something that’s been seen. Unfortunately, I’ve also talked with community members who’ve had issues with their pregnancies and birth defects. um, particularly in Arvin. I remember speaking with a woman who almost lost her babies, and, you know, it’s no accident that they’re in proximity to these oil drillings. That’s not a coincidence, so there’s definitely a lot of negative health effects felt by so many people, and I myself, just recently last year, went to the doctor because I had a very tough cough. It was coughing attacks where they got so bad, I would just like throw up, which was very, very unfortunate. And I’m like, hey, what can I do? Is there something that could help me? And he’s like, you basically will have this unless you move away because the air quality here is so bad. I’m like, oh, okay, that’s great. Yeah. So I think improving air quality will help so many people, especially those who don’t have the option to just move away and leave. That doesn’t even solve the issue because people will still be breathing bad air.
Q: What efforts have been taken within Kern County to stop the oil leakages?
A: I believe it was before my time with the company, but I think it was 2008 the city of Arvin started efforts for setbacks, which would be pretty much, like a buffer zone between oil drilling and sensitive areas like houses, schools, and parks. It started off really small. I think it was like 500 feet, saying, okay, you know, you can’t come within 500 feet of these sensitive areas, and it started off in Arvin as a local ordinance, and pretty much this group of community members were like, okay, what if we, continue to fight for more? Let’s do it, countywide, and let’s ask for a bigger buffer zone, and throughout the years, with them uniting with other communities and working with CRPE, working with other nonprofits, and eventually did become a statewide thing, where in the entire state of California, there had to be a 1200-foot buffer zone. And it was the law of the land signed by Governor Newsom, but because of a lot of legal and just opposition from oil companies, it’s still kind of in a limbo state, but I think that shows what can happen when community members feel empowered and realize, yeah, we can do something about this. And so a similar effort has been happening with the wanting to get these abandoned wells plugged so that there won’t be any more methane leaks. So we’re also in the middle of that, and hopefully some day soon that will also be the law of the land, and yeah, it’s something that we continue to uh strive for.
Q: Is there anything you’d like to add? A: Oil drilling really does affect land or air or water quality, wildlife, people’s health. So it really does touch upon everything, and it’s like, we can’t avoid it. There’s no way to avoid it, really, really breathing air every day. So I think it’s very important to be aware of this and to know that our health does matter and that we should continue fighting for it.
