LAFD: "Chemical Investigation; INC#1411; 05:54PM; 2800 S Sepulveda Bl; MAP: https://bit.ly/41XrHN9; #RanchoPark; LAFD responded to an "oil-like" substance continuously seeping from the ground. Firefighters have called for a vacuum truck and sand to mitigate the environmental effect. Several agencies have been notified (Clean Harbors, Street Services, Watershed, and possible responsible parties for the substance)." #hazmat#oil
"Come and listen to my story about a man named Jed
A poor mountaineer, barely kept his family fed,
And then one day he was shootin at some food,
And up through the ground come a bubblin crude.
@ai6yr My old stomping ground there. I remember when "The Speedway" adjacent to Venice Beach was lined with oil well jackpumps, one after the other. The area smelled like crude oil and diesel exhaust.
@ai6yr Yes, that was before the offshore rigs were built.
Before the offshore rigs were built, when I swam in the ocean there and walked on the beach, I'd come home with blobs of tar stuck to my feet. (The Tarheels had nothing on me.) My mom would clean it off with naphtha.
I assumed the tar was associated with leakage from oil tankers. But when the offshore rigs were built and high capacity wells sunk into the oil-bearing layers, the pumps along the Speedway were shut down and the tar on the beach went away. No more tar on the feet.
Later, in my 20s, when I got involved in the oil exploration biz, I learned the real answer.
The tar was from natural oil seeps on the seafloor. Those seeps had been there since forever. Long ago, American Indians used to collect the tar to seal their boats.
All the wells from before couldn't pump the oil out fast enough to reduce the pressure and stop the natural seeps. The offshore rigs each support numerous large boreholes into the oil reservoir(s). They're able to pump fast enough that the natural seeps are stopped and this cleaned up the beaches. Yay.
Surfed the Huntington Beach cliffs from about 1963 to +1973 as the oil wells were slowly replaced by nothing, and then houses, and Pacific Coast Highway was lined with parking meters
That's pretty much what made me move to Seattle in 1975...
@ai6yr I should add that every home and property owner on the West Side got monthly royalty checks for the oil taken from under their property. Ours came from Signal Oil,
@ai6yr Speaking of oil... Ever been to the La Brea Tar Pits? If not, you should. That's the biggest clue of all that the whole region is bulging with oil. It's been seeping out and pooling on the surface for millions of years.
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