Los Angeles – In the wake of California oil and gas regulators approving 7.8 percent more new oil drilling permits during the first quarter of 2020 compared to the same period last year, a state-funded study documents the increased health risks to babies born to mothers living within one kilometer of an oil or gas well.
The new study by the California Air Resources Board found that pregnant women who lived in rural locations within 1 kilometer (0.62 miles) of active oil and gas wells in the state were 40% more likely to have babies with low birth weight than those not near active wells.
The researchers at Berkeley’s School of Public Health also found that pregnant mothers living in rural locations within .62 miles of the highest-producing oil wells were also 20% more likely to have babies small for their gestational ages than people living further away. More than 5.4 million Californians live within one mile of a well.
“Such babies face higher risks of developmental and health problems throughout their lives and the communities affected are predominantly low-income communities of color with a long legacy of extractive and polluting industries,” said Consumer Advocate Liza Tucker. “They deserve environmental justice and what that means is instituting a barrier of at least 2,500 feet between people and oil production. Governor Newsom must also ban the issuing of any new oil permits to operate within that limit anywhere in the state.”
The retrospective cohort study examined 2,918,089 births to mothers living within 10 km of at least one production well between January 1, 2006 and December 31, 2015.
“Adjusted models showed exposure to active OGD was associated with adverse birth outcomes in rural areas; effect estimates in urban areas were close to null. In rural areas, increasing production volume was associated with stronger adverse effect estimates,” according to the study.
“Proximity to higher production OGD in California was associated with adverse birth outcomes among mothers residing in rural areas. Future studies are needed to confirm our findings in other populations and improve exposure assessment measures,” the study concluded. https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP5842
The authors of the study, Residential Proximity to Oil and Gas Development and Birth Outcomes in California: A Retrospective Cohort Study of 2006–2015 Births, are Kathy V. Tran, Joan A. Casey, Lara J. Cushing, and Rachel Morello-Frosch
In a statement responding to the release of the study, Food & Water Action State Director Alexandra Nagy, stated, “This study reconfirms what hundreds and hundreds of studies from here in California and across the country have shown over and over again: Fossil fuel drilling and fracking are a direct threat to human health – especially our children. When Governor Newsom’s own administration is producing studies confirming the harm fracking inflicts on families, his failure to act against this hazardous practice – in fact expanding it in the midst of a pandemic – should be seen as all the more indefensible.”
“There’s now only one rational choice for Newsom: Put an immediate halt on new fracking permits and take serious, substantive steps to ramp down oil and gas development in this state immediately, starting with a 2,500-foot setback of existing wells from sensitive receptors,” Nagy continued.
State regulators have continued to issue new permits for oil and gas drilling since Newsom took office. The number of permits issued in 2019 rivaled the number that Governor Jerry Brown, who received over $9.8 million from the oil and gas industry and utilities, issued in 2018, his last year in office.
In the first quarter of 2020, oil well permits rose 7.8% over the year before. Consumer Watchdog and FrackTrackerAlliance reported in May that the Newsom Administration issued 1,623 permits during the first quarter.
The California Department of Conservation on April 3 also approved 24 new fracking permits in Kern County during the midst of the COVID-19 Pandemic and after a nearly six-month moratorium on new fracking operations.
The number of oil permits issued under Newsom since he took office in January 2019 now totals 6,168. The permit numbers and locations are posted and updated on an interactive map at the website: NewsomWellWatch.com
About 12% of all permits issued in 2019 were for wells within 2,500 feet of homes, hospitals, schools, daycares and nursing facilities, according to FracTracker Alliance. In the first quarter, about 10% were issued within that range, exposing people to unacceptable levels of toxic and carcinogenic emissions, said Tucker.
“People living near producing oil wells face elevated risks of cancer, respiratory and cardiovascular diseases in addition to reproductive harm. Studies in other states such as Colorado, Pennsylvania, Oklahoma, and Texas of the effects of hydraulic fracturing on people living nearby have also found low birth weights, preterm births and birth defects tied to proximity to oil production sites,” she said
California is the only major oil-producing state besides Alaska that has no state health and safety setbacks whatsoever on the proximity of oil wells to people. Unlike “green” California, Texas, Colorado, Pennsylvania, Maryland, North Dakota and other oil and gas producing states all have health and safety setbacks. For example, the state of Texas requires 250 foot setbacks around fracking operations, while the City of Dallas requires 1500 foot setbacks around oil drilling operations.
“There would be negligible effect on the oil industry and jobs if such a barrier were instituted,” said Tucker. “The wells within 2500 feet of residents produce only 10% of the state’s oil. Right now, oil production makes up only a few tenths of one percent of the state’s GDP and of the state’s private sector jobs. These workers could be put to work plugging up and cleaning up wells that currently threaten public health.”
For more see: https://www.consumerwatchdog.org/energy/ca-oil-well-permits-under-gov-newsom-outpace-first-quarter-last-year-loss-public-health