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City of Santa Monica Mayor Calls on Newsom to Shut Down Playa Del Rey Gas Facility, Create Transition Plan for Workers
May. 25, 2021 at 1:00 pm
In response to growing health, safety, and environmental concerns, Santa Monica Mayor Sue Himmelrich has sent a letter to Governor Newsom calling for the Playa del Rey gas facility to be closed. The letter, sent on behalf of the City Council, urges the governor to commit to a timeline for closure and initiate a fair and just transition process for the site’s decommissioning.
The gas facility’s wells and infrastructure at Playa del Rey extend underneath the Ballona Wetlands Ecological Reserve and have been the site of numerous leaks and blowouts, including a vent stack explosion in 2013 that caused a 100-foot flame to shoot into the air. The site was forced to shut down for over a year in 2011 after State regulators discovered a series of leaks. Community pressure to close the site has steadily grown in the wake of 2015’s Aliso Canyon
It was mid-March 2020, and I was on edge while driving toward the entrance of Eaton Canyon Natural Area, a small slice of creek-fed greenspace that spills from the foot of Southern California’s San Gabriel Mountains into the suburban sprawl located just below.
A morning hike is not my typical cause for anxiety, of course. But there was this burgeoning pandemic, you see, and I was about to join a friend for a stroll along what is arguably one of the most popular trails in all of Los Angeles County. The 3.5-mile round-trip Eaton Canyon Trail ends at a slim waterfall that pours into a placid swimming hole. It’s the stuff of every dog’s, child’s, and Instagrammer’s delight.