Prompted by concerns over hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” the City of Carson on March 19 imposed a 45-day ban on all oil drilling activity. The emergency moratorium could be extended for up to two years. It effectively blocks plans by Occidental Petroleum to drill more than 200 wells in the community, which is south of Los Angeles and adjacent to Long Beach.

Occidental has stated repeatedly that it does not plan to use fracking in the planned wells, and that the technique (pumping water, sand and chemicals into a well under pressure to fracture rock around the well bore) would not be effective for the wells.

“There are too many questions, too many unknowns” about fracking, Councilman Al Robles, who proposed the ban, told The Los Angeles Times, adding, “I refuse to gamble with the health and well-being of the residents” of the community.

Catherine Reheis-Boyd, president of the Western States Petroleum Association called the vote by Carson’s City Council “an alarming development.” The action “appears to be a response to outside groups with little connection to the local community that are pursuing an aggressively anti-oil and natural gas agenda,” she said.

Noting that hydraulic fracturing has been used in California for more than 60 years without any harm to the environment, Ms. Reheis-Boyd said “it is unfortunate the City Council was persuaded to take the precipitous action by the outside advocacy groups using false and misleading information” about Occidental’s plans.

“It is even more alarming that the Council acted to halt all oil and natural gas drilling,” she stated, including non-fracked wells. She noted that Carson will forego revenues from oil and gas production that would have supported police, fire and other city services.

Occidental’s plans included 202 wells on a 6.5-acre site, including two test wells, 130 production wells, and 70 injection wells. Occidental had estimated that, using directional drilling techniques, it could produce 6,000 barrels of oil and 3 million cubic feet per day from the wells.

Carson sits atop the Dominguez field, which has produced 270 million barrels of oil from more than 600 wells since the field was discovered in 1923.