Excerpts:
Lupe Anguiano is working to stop fracking near the beautiful pacific beaches and fertile agricultural fields of her hometown, Oxnard, CA…
A drilling field sits next to the site of two deep injection wells owned by Anterra, which has funneled almost 20 million gallons of wastewater deep underground in the first half of 2014.
We visit McGrath State Beach on the Pacific Ocean. A drilling rig pokes over the dunes, a half mile from the campground. We (and the rest of the public) are blocked from getting close enough to see what’s going on, but well records indicate that recent permits have been filed to drill horizontally from the beach to offshore reserves.
Other wells are tapping onshore deposits below. This small stretch of beach (home to snowy plovers) also has at least a dozen wells already pumping. When we pivot 180 degrees from the water, we can see more drilling rigs across the road where dunes slope to farmland.
Lupe suspects the oil companies may frack or acidize these wells. Acidizing is another well stimulation technique — similar to fracking — that involves pumping hydrochloric or hydrofluoric acids deep underground. Fracking breaks apart rock, while acidizing breaks rock down — but both are used to try and coax more oil from underground rock formations. Lupe is concerned that chemicals from these processes may contaminate the beaches and endanger the marine ecosystem, already at risk from pollution and offshore drilling. These Pacific beaches were where her family came to spend summer nights — grilling hot dogs, catching fish in the moonlight, and sleeping in the dunes. And she wants to see countless more generations enjoy them.
Up until the beginning of 2014, neither fracking nor acidizing had been of special interest to California’s Department of Oil, Gas, and Geothermal Resources (DOGGR), despite the fact that there was outcry across the country over fracking’s impacts on air, water, and health. Finding out what was happening at well sites in California involved a lot of guesswork and snooping…
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