Mon 9/9: One-day notice! Join in to protect your community from oil industry pollution. County Supervisors Meeting Tuesday 9/10.

Los Padres National Forest is threatened by dangerously under-regulated oil development in Ventura County. We have a rare chance to change that.

On Tuesday, September 10, the Board of Supervisors will consider updating oil permitting to incorporate modern standards that better protect the health and safety of our communities and our environment. The proposed amendments would increase transparency, oversight, and public participation by ensuring that there is an environmental review, public notice, and a hearing before any new oil wells are drilled.

Thousands of new oil wells in Ventura County were drilled and continue to to be drilled under “antiquated permits” that were issued up to 75 years ago—before environmental and human health impacts were known, before certain animal populations dwindled to the brink of extinction, and long before many bedrock environmental laws existed. Hundreds of wells with antiquated permits are within and nearby the Los Padres National Forest including the Sespe Oil Field—one of the most environmentally sensitive areas in Ventura County.

The agenda item could come up as early as 9:00 am. Email me if you plan to go and I will let you know if there are timing updates.

To support this and other campaigns to protect our local public lands, consider a donation or ForestWatch membership. Gifts of all sizes help keep us on “watch.”

– Rebecca August, Public Lands Advocate • Los Padres ForestWatch