Opponents of the Whittier Hills oil drilling project will get their day in court Thursday.
Two state environmental agencies - the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy and its subsidiary, the Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority - are teaming up with the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors and the county's Regional Park and Open Space District in an effort to stop the project.
All four groups will argue before Los Angeles Superior Court Judge James Chalfant that the project damages sensitive habitat and threatens the survival of the California gnatcatcher and other "indicator species" such as the bobcat and the Western spadefoot toads.
The MRCA, in particular, has said in its lawsuit that the project violates the spirit of Proposition A, a 1992 ballot measure that taxed all county property owners for the purchase and upkeep of open space and parks.
Since the MRCA, the city of Whittier and the SMMC worked together to buy up open space and habitat in the Whittier Hills using more than $16 million in Prop. A funds, drilling for oil in the same land preserve purchased with county taxpayer dollars would "violate the public's trust."
The county argues that the city's lease of about 21 acres of the land preserve northeast of the Friendly Hills neighborhood to partners Matrix Oil Corp. and Clayton Williams Energy, Inc. is illegal because the city has not received permission from the county, nor the county Regional Park and Open
Space District, which manages all Prop. A lands.Chalfant is scheduled to rule on the groups' request for a preliminary injunction, which would stop Matrix from sinking test wells until a full trial is ordered.
Matrix was supposed to start drilling for oil earlier this month, but the judge granted a partial temporary restraining order saying Matrix must wait until the outcome of Thursday's court hearing.
"I think the injunction should be issued, if for no other reason, the city of Whittier has gone ahead with this project without getting the authority of the Open Space District and the county of Los Angeles," said Eddie Diaz, a Whittier resident and a member of a local group that opposes the project.
"I believe by the court granting this injunction, it will uphold what the residents and majority of the community really wants: No oil drilling. And it will also uphold Prop. A," said Roy McKee, president of Whittier Hills Oil Watch (WHOW), a grass-roots group long opposed to the project.
"We think we have a strong case and we will prevail," said Jeff Maloney, MRCA staff attorney.
Whittier's attorney, James Markman, has told the Whittier Daily News in the past that the city is allowed to change the use in the preserve as long as it makes up for the environmental damage. The city has ordered Matrix to perform 200 mitigations, including buying other pieces of wildlands.
Markman did not return several phone calls over two days. He also did not respond to an email request to comment.
However, Markman said last December: "We are ready to litigate it. And we are ready to talk."
In January, the city allowed Matrix to trim brush to make way for large drilling equipment on a 7-acre portion reserved for oil and gas operations.
Supervisor Gloria Molina sent two aides to the site to stop the earth-moving equipment. They were escorted off the property by the Puente Hills Habitat Preservation Authority and its rangers, who padlocked the gate behind them.
Molina and the supervisors have stepped up efforts to block the project in court. She called the land preserve one of the county's "last pristine open spaces" and said it should be preserved, not drilled for oil.
That set off a war of words between Molina and Whittier Mayor Owen Newcomer, who said in a news release that Chevron and Unocal had drilled for oil on the land in the past and so it was hardly pristine.
"Whittier's criticism (of Molina) is hypocritical," Diaz said Wednesday. "They purchased it in the condition it was in - to allow it to grow into pristine land. They have plans to restore it, so the damage done by oil companies could be mitigated over time," Diaz said.
Whittier has said it could realize between $7.4 million and $115.4 million per year in oil revenues.
The land is known for many species of plant and animal life. For example, biologists are studying the bobcat population of the Whittier Hills, which may be significant. The Puente Hills preserve, a 3,800-acre area that includes the Whittier Hills, contains 200 wildlife species, according to an article by Shannon Lucas of the Puente Hills Habitat Preservation Authority in the journal Watershed Wise.
steve.scauzillo@sgvn.com
626-544-0843
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