1950 DEC 20 CC MIN - 471
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DAVID ETTLESON. OFFICIAL COURT REPORTER • MUTUAL 7769
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"Conter Building Supplies Co.
.11202 Carmenita Road
Whittier, Calif.
December 16, 1950
"City Council, City of E1 Segundo
.203 Richmond Street
El Segundo, California
"Gentlemen:
Since circumstances prevent my presence
at the hearing to be held Wednesday, December
20, 1950 on the property stated on the enclosed
post card, I would like to put my consideration
of the proposed drilling in writing.
"I have been planning for some time to
build on my lots located in that area and am,
therefore, anxious to have the matter of drill-
ing settled. I am definitely in favor of the
drilling and would like to have my opinion
given to the proper party and presented to the
hearin§.
Thank you very much and I would appreciate
any further information on this subject being
sent to me.
CITY CLERK MCCARTHY:
communications, Mr. Mayor.
Yours very truly,
KATHERENE L. CONTER
Mrs. Louis A. Conter"
Those are all the written
MAYOR SELBY: If there are no objections, all
of the communications which the City Clerk has just read
will be received in evidence and made a part of the record
of this public hearing...(short pause)...Hearing no
objections - -it is so ordered.
Now, ladies and gentlemen, I shall outline
to you the procedure which the Council would like to follow
in conducting this hearing, so that it may be done in an
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DAVID ETTLESON. OFFICIAL COURT REPORTER • MUTUAL 7789
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orderly manner, and at the same time afford everyone
present an opportunity to be heard and to present testimony
and evidence, both oral and documentary.
FIRST: We shall hear from the applicant, and
whom, for convenience in discussion, may be referred to as
the "applicants ". Whenever this word is used, the Council
will understand them to mean Edwin W. Pauley and Harold
R. Pauley; and we will also hear from all those who may
desire to support the applicants in this matter and who
are in favor of the granting of the variance applied for.
SECOND: We would like to then hear from the
appellants and all those who wish to support the appellants,
and who desire to oppose the granting of the variance
applied for.
THIRD: The Council will then afford the
applicants and those supporting the applicants a reasonable
opportunity for rebuttal.
FOURTH: The Council will then afford the
appellants a reasonable opportunity for rebuttal.
We have here tonight a stenotype reporter
is
who is recording the proceedings, and itArespectfully re-
quested that each person who addresses the Council, before
proceeding with his or her testimony, state clearly and
audibly his or her name and address for the purpose of the
record. Further, in view of the nature of this proceeding,
the Council will require that the witnesses and those
24 - -
25 Council at this time their testi_mnmr. Plrir1onnP nnri
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a..n.Tffw MUTUAL 7789
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addressing the Council and offering testimony, be sworn.
In order to expedite this phase of the matter, the City
Council would like to have the City Clerk swear all those
present at this time who expect to address the Council.
Any persons arriving later who may desire to testify may
be sworn at that time. Each person addressing the Council
shall state, after the announcement of his or her name and
address, whether he or she has been sworn, so as to keep
the record complete in that regard.
Mr. City Clerk, will you administer the
oath.
CITY CLERK McCARTHY: Will all those who expect ti
offer testimony or address the City Council with reference
to the matter now pending before this Council please
arise and be sworn.
"You and each of you do solemnly swear
that the testimony you are about to give in the proceeding
now pending before the City Council of the City of'E1
Segundo, California, will be the truth, the whole truth
and nothing but the truth, so help you God."
... A number of individuals arose and were duly
.I sworn ...
MAYOR SELBY: We now ask the applicants and
those who wish to support the applicants to present to the
Council at this time their testimony, evidence and argu-
ments.
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�-�X,��,.,:►.r� ,:J .s' �jt,�'3 t''1 '��; MlTfi ...�r! }�;C:�` _�C�
Does anyone wish to speak in favor of
the applicants or in favor of the oil well?
MR. J. BARTON HUTCHINS: Mr. Mayor and Members
of the E1 Segundo City Council, my name is J. Barton
Hutchins. I represent Edwin W. Pauley and Harold R. Pauley
My address and the address of the applicants is 717 North
Highland Avenue, Los Angeles 38, California.
If you don't mind, gentlemen, I will
address your box customers tonight also, so that we can all
understand just what we are talking about.
It is a pleasure to be here and to be
afforded the opportunity at this time to go into the matterll
of our application for a permit to drill an oil well in
the City of E1 Segundo. I state this because I want the
record to show, or rather, I should like the record to
show that we have played our cards straight up. We have
not contacted any single member of the City Council, in
order that it would be perfectly obvious that the people
of the City of E1 Segundo, as the citizens, through their
representative Council, are the ones in the final analysis
to decide this issue.
Let me go back, if I may, just a couple of
years, to give you the background of our present applica-
tion. A number of years ago the City of Los Angeles owned
the property in question. They thought there was oil to
be developed in the sewage plant district. The Council
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DAVID ETTLESON, OFFICIAL COURT REPORTER - MUTUAL 7789
13
called for competitive bids for an oil and gas lease. As
a result, a couple of gentlemen were successful bidders.
Their names were Willis and Shirley Ward.
After they successfully obtained this leas
Edwin W. Pauley and Harold R. Pauley purchased it from them
and undertook to do exploratory drilling. At that time you
will recall that an application was made to the City of El
Segundo to drill from E1 Segundo under Hyperion. The reaso
for that was that the City of Los Angeles had not yet
approached the finality of its plans to build this plant
and as a result didn't know where to let anybody drill.
, The first well was completed for approxi-
lhately 800 barrels a day. The Department of Natural
Resources will show you that the well was thereafter re-
completed for approximately 39 barrels a day, and that is
what it is producing today.
The time came to drill a second well under
the usual procedure of drilling, under the provisions of
oil and gas leases, and again the City of Los Angeles came
up with the immaturity of plans as to the exact location
of the plant. The Los Angeles City Council has been giving
us extensions continuously in order to come to a conclusion
about drilling on Hyperion until about six months ago. Now
they have said, "We built a plant and there isn't any
place to put your oil well, on account of the enormity of
the project."
24 marked as Applicant's Exhibit No. 1 and received in
25 evidence ...
26 MR . 14T0 nn1ATnnml.r. T+ 4
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DAVID ETTLESON. OFFICIAL COURT R[PORT[R - MUTUAL 7789
1`t
I offer now for you gentlemen a plat which show
completely the finished plant as it is now, and if you
care to, you may put this in evidence.
MR. WOODWORTH: I will show it to the audience
first.
... Whereupon the large map of the area in
question was displayed to the audience ...
MR. HUTCHINS: I would like to call your atten-
tion, ladies and gentlemen, to the completed form and to
call your attention to the only vacant spot in this corner
and building there is going ahead right away. These lines
(indicating) you see here, the red lines, are the result
of slope easement which the City of Los Angeles condemned
to obtain an order to remove the hills that were once
upon a time there and make, I think a one to 12 -foot slope
from those lines down here to the Vista Del Mar.
MR. WOODWORTH: This instrument has been offered
in evidence by the Proponents, Mr. Mayor and Councilmen.
May we receive it?
MAYOR SELBY: What is your pleasure, gentlemen?
If no objection, it will be received in evidence and
marked as Applicant's Exhibit No. 1.
Whereupon the map above referred to was
marked as Applicants Exhibit No. 1 and received in
evidence ...
MR. WOODWORTH: It is not necessary, Mr. Mayor,
') , I own vin r, r,hP rr -ir.T i,,, -n, r _ .
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1 to make a motion each time an exhibit is introduced unless
2 you so desire. The Chair can solely make an announcement,
3 unless there is objection,that it will be received in
4 evidence and marked as applicant's number, whatever it is,
5 and then the Chair will make the announcement as to what
6 the number is.
7 MAYOR SELBY: All right.
8 MR. HUTCHINS: One of the reasons I offer this
9 in evidence is to show the complete coverage of the area
10 that is available for the disposal plant. In spite of
11 this, we have diligently and conscientiously been negotiat-
12 ing with the City of Los Angeles and are still in the hopes
13 that some day we could get over there and drill these
14 wells straight down instead of having to operate from El
15 Segundo and slant -drill them.
16 There are two bodies of people interested in
17 that. The State Park Commission, which has a contract with
18 the City of Los Angeles. In this instance, when they
19 traded some tidelands, some beachlands under the so- called
20 ninety million dollar Christmas Tree Bill about Five or
21 six years ago, wherein the State acquired certain length
22 of tidelands and beachlands in swapping equal values with
23 the State and City. Then the State leases them back to
24 the City. I believe you may have some down here of your
25 own that the City leases for $1.00 a year for management
26 purposes. As a matter of fact, we have an appointment
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DAVID ETTLESON, OFFICIAL COURT R[PORT[R • MUTUAL 7799
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January 26th with the State Park Commission in San
Francisco to again go into this matter.
Now, I mention these things, folks, because I
want you to know of this application from the beginning of
this. It was about six months ago that we initiated
proceedings here for a permit to start this next well. We
have done everything we could to satisfy the officials
with whom we came in contact of our plans, and I would like
to go into them right now.
To begin with, I would like to say that at no
time have the Pauley brothers made a petition to the
Planning Commission of Los Angeles which has been turned
down with respect to going into drilling directly on the
Sewer Farm. The engineer in Los Angeles likes to call it t,
Sewage Disposal Plant, but it is still a Sewer Farm.
We made an application and the hearing was
held, the maps were prepared by a qualified engineer in
Los Angeles for the Planning Commission, and as a result
of an understanding between Mr. Gordon Whitnall and our-
selves, we are furnishing an engineer, because at that
time the City of El Segundo did not have one.
Our plans have progressed, then, to where we havo
some definite provisions to follow, and the recommendation
is Resolution No. 87. In addition to that, I would like
to say this, gentlemen: that although the recommendation
for a permit does not call for it, we ourselves would like
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DAVID ETTLESON, OFFICIAL COURT RKPORT[R - MUTUAL 7789
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to fix a derrick up with what is known as soundproofing,
a blanket. It is said that about 80 per cent of the
noise will be removed by a blanket, and that about 95 per
cent of the 20 per cent that will be left will be removed
by muffling any and all machinery we have including these
pumps.
At this time I would like to present pictures of
soundproofed derricks so you will know what they look like.
The Seaboard Oil Company built, in the Elysian Park area
in the City of Los Angeles, one of these soundproof
derricks, and at the time they did, they had some motion
picture audio - recording instruments there to find out how
much noise there actually was. My understanding is that
the noise and sound there was practically negligible.
The next important well that was drilled this
way was by the Shell Oil Company just at the edge of
Beverly Hills by Park LaBrea during the last World War.
Since then this has become a very common practice. Signal
Hill is full of these now. As a matter of fact, we have
recently ourselves completed a well about ten days ago
right in the middle of a very densely - populated area, so
densely - populated that we had to purchase a home and move
it in order to provide space enough to keep away 25 feet
at all angles from this derrick. Well, that was sound-
proofed and muffled and I can refer you to the landowners
themselves, they all live there, as to how much noise that
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DAVID ETTLESON. OFFICIAL COURT REPORTER - MUTUAL 7769
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well made. The well is at the corner of Grant and Wilton
Streets in Signal Hill.
We just also completed one at Athens, at the
Athens Oil Field, under the same circumstances, and had it
muffled and soundproofed.
(Referring to photograph.) This is one of them
here that was built by the Richfield Oil Company in Boyle
Heights just the last few years.
MR. WOODWORTH: Do you wish to introduce that
into evidence?
MR. HUTCHINS: Yes.
MR. WOODWORTH: So that the record is clear,
this instrument has been presented in evidence, Mr. Mayor
and gentlemen. What is your pleasure with reference to
its introduction?
MAYOR SELBY: If there is no objection, I will
ask the Clerk to give it a number.
CITY CLERK McCARTHY: It will be received in
evidence and marked as Applicant's Exhibit No. 2...
... Whereupon the photograph above referred to
was marked as Applicant's Exhibit No. 2 and received in
evidence ...
MR. HUTCHINS: I would like to offer, gentlemen,
this next picture also in evidence. It is another sound-
proofed derrick that the Richfield Oil Company had in the
same area. It was in a residential place in Boyle Heights,
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DAVID ETTLESON. OFFICIAL COURT P.—T.. _ x.00
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1 in a very densely- populated area. The reason these are
2 being offered to you is because the records and the records
3 of landowners and their reactions are all available to you.
1 (Referring to another photograph.) This is
another one drilled a little farther down on the hill,
right in the middle of a densely- populated district. With
r your permission, I would like to introduce it as applicant'
I next exhibit in order, Mr. Mayor.
I MAYOR SELBY: If there is no objection, we will
have the Clerk mark it as applicant's next exhibit in order.
... Whereupon the photograph above referred to
was marked as Applicant's Exhibit No. 3 and received in
evidence ...
MR. HUTCHINS: (Presenting another photograph.)
This will show our interest in what we propose to do about
the well itself, the derrick itself. That will account now
for the reason we have left that steel derrick up there.
We had intended to take it down in the middle of the"
summer and we were figuring on drilling the new well with
a portable mast. But we have determined that it will be
to the best interests of you folks, as well as ourselves,
if the well were drilled with this soundproofing on it.
Therefore, we left the derrick up pending a permit to skid
it about 50 feet over towards the dump there. And then when
that derrick is through drilling, immediately after the
well is on production, within the next fifteen or twenty
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