Small California Town Takes on Oil Industry Health Threats

"The mostly low-income, Latino residents of Arvin have joined with other communities to demand setbacks for wells. Their slogan: “No drilling where we are living.”"

"ARVIN, California—In September 2018, Estela Escoto sat down with a team of lawyers and community organizers and weighed her options.

Escoto's town—Arvin, California—had just granted an oil drilling and well-servicing company, Petro-Lud, a permit to drill four new wells near a neighborhood densely packed with young families and a park where children played soccer.

Escoto, president of an environmental justice group called the Committee for a Better Arvin, was frustrated, but not surprised. For years, she and the committee had been struggling to keep oil and gas development out of their neighborhoods."

Julia Kane reports for InsideClimate News August 3, 2020.

Source: InsideClimate News, 08/04/2020