City sets oil drilling rules but doesn't enforce them; Lack of follow-through is seen as a systemic problem

When oil companies wanted to drill wells at a South Los Angeles site decades ago, city planners set out a long list of requirements intended to ensure that oil production was "strictly controlled to eliminate any possible odor, noise" and other hazards.

Nearly a half-century later, neighbors complained about a foul stench, headaches and nosebleeds. Hundreds of complaints were filed with regional air quality regulators.

Years after concerns first erupted, following a public outcry, the current operator of the site voluntarily suspended production. And the city attorney sued to prevent the firm, AllenCo Energy Inc., from resuming drilling, arguing that it had created a "public nuisance."

But what the city didn't do as the problems arose was investigate whether AllenCo was complying with the requirements originally imposed by the city.

Los Angeles' apparent lack of follow-through on its operating conditions, which The Times found in files in a government archive, points to broader weaknesses in city oversight of roughly 1,000 active wells across the city, many of them nestled near homes and schools.

In the past, city planners crafted rules on a case-by-case basis that were meant to minimize problems at each drilling site. But Los Angeles has no systematic way to ensure that those requirements are being followed. City officials say they initiate investigations only in response to complaints.

Planning officials acknowledged in a report last year that they needed a new system to "monitor and regularly enforce current conditions of compliance of existing oil and gas operations." But so far, no such process has been established.

Environmental activists say those enforcement gaps underscore the need for reforms, especially as AllenCo presses to restart drilling.

Neighbors said they weren't aware of the requirements imposed by the city and took their grievances about odors to a regional air quality agency. But the Los Angeles Department of Building and Safety, which is responsible for investigating possible violations of city conditions, doesn't coordinate with that agency, according to building department spokesman David Lara. So it didn't receive the complaints that neighbors were filing with air quality regulators.

And Lara added that even if the odor complaints had come to his agency, its staff lacks the expertise to properly investigate such issues.

Liberty Hill Foundation program manager Daniela...