L.A. County – After a chemical scare in neighboring Orange County, Los Angeles County rolled out an online map meant to help residents check whether they live or work near industrial sites, oil wells and waste locations, including areas near homes and communities.
When a chemical threat in Orange County gripped Southern California over Memorial Day weekend, many people looked for answers they could act on—especially about what might be sitting in the background of their own neighborhoods.
Now Los Angeles County is pushing that information to the surface.
On Friday, the L.A. County Department of Public Health released an online map designed to show whether people live or work near an industrial or waste site. The tool displays more than 6,000 active or idle oil wells, as well as 1,300 industrial facilities. The county notes that some of those industrial facilities are “located in and around residential and community areas.”.
The map also includes the sites of underground gas storage facilities, refineries, fuel terminals, legacy pollution sites, active industrial sites, landfills, dumps and recycling centers.
For many residents in California—where aerospace plants and oil and gas facilities are part of the landscape—those nearby operations can be hard to see until something goes wrong. County officials say the point now is to make the geography of risk more visible.
“Communities should be able to easily see clear information about what is in their neighborhoods. ” Barbara Ferrer. director of the Department of Public Health. said. “This tool brings multiple sources of information together so people can better understand what may be affecting their health. make informed decisions. and support community planning that benefits everyone in the county.”.
The map was developed by the county’s Office of Environmental Justice and Climate Health. It went live at tinyurl.com/industrialmap.
Its release comes after a threat of a chemical tank explosion in Orange County transfixed Southern California over Memorial Day weekend. Disaster was ultimately averted in that case, but the sense of vigilance that followed has a history here.
In 2015, an explosion occurred at an Exxon Mobil refinery in Torrance. No one was seriously hurt, officials said, but they warned the situation had the potential to be catastrophic because a highly toxic chemical on-site can penetrate skin.
That same year, a blowout began at the Aliso Canyon SoCalGas natural gas storage well near Porter Ranch. It lasted 112 days, sickened thousands with headaches, nosebleeds and nausea, and temporarily forced 8,000 families from their homes.
And in 1989, thousands were forced to flee after poisonous chlorine gas leaked from a 30-ton tank in Ventura County, injuring about 20 people.
Taken together, the county’s map and its timing land on the same question: if something hazardous can sit close enough to change lives quickly, why shouldn’t the public be able to find out what’s nearby before the alarms?
For residents looking to check their area, the county is pointing to the new online tool as a starting point—an attempt to bring industrial and waste information into view, not after a crisis, but before it reaches their street.
Los Angeles County industrial sites map oil wells environmental justice Office of Environmental Justice and Climate Health Barbara Ferrer chemical safety Orange County chemical threat public health