At Black Women for Wellness, our Environmental Justice team has been fighting for years to end oil drilling across Los Angeles.
We are part of a coalition called STAND-LA (Stand Together Against Neighborhood Drilling), where we work with other community groups to protect the health and safety of Angelenos harmed by urban oil extraction.
A lot of our work focuses on Black communities living around the Inglewood Oil Field in South LA.
At Black Women for Wellness, our Environmental Justice team has been fighting for years to end oil drilling across Los Angeles.
We are part of a coalition called STAND-LA (Stand Together Against Neighborhood Drilling), where we work with other community groups to protect the health and safety of Angelenos harmed by urban oil extraction.
A lot of our work focuses on Black communities living around the Inglewood Oil Field in South LA.
Type your address into an interactive map to find out how close you live to oil drilling sites.
Opt-in for updates from BWW and STAND about our ongoing efforts to shut down toxic drilling!
The Problem:
There are over 7,000 active and idle oil wells across LA County, and the Inglewood Oil Field in South LA is the largest urban oil field in the nation. These wells are mostly located in low-income Black and Latine communities. Learn more.
The Harm:
Scientific studies – and accounts from local residents – show that chemicals emitted from oil extraction cause negative health impacts, including reproductive harms. Learn more.
The Problem:
There are over 7,000 active and idle oil wells across LA County, and the Inglewood Oil Field in South LA is the largest urban oil field in the nation. These wells are mostly located in low-income Black and Latine communities. Learn more.
The Harm:
Scientific studies – and accounts from local residents – show that chemicals emitted from oil extraction cause negative health impacts, including reproductive harms. Learn more.
This is a Reproductive Justice issue:
BWW is a reproductive justice organization so everything we do is centered in this framework.
Reproductive justice requires environmental justice – everyone should be able to exist in safe & healthy neighborhoods, especially children and birthing people.
Toxic oil drilling operations in Los Angeles can harm birth outcomes and reproductive health.
The right to self-determination and bodily autonomy mean that birthing people should have agency over their lives and the lives of their families. Nobody consented to toxic neighborhood oil drilling!
This is a Reproductive Justice issue:
BWW is a reproductive justice organization so everything we do is centered in this framework.
Reproductive justice requires environmental justice – everyone should be able to exist in safe & healthy neighborhoods, especially children and birthing people.
Toxic oil drilling operations in Los Angeles can harm birth outcomes and reproductive health.
The right to self-determination and bodily autonomy mean that birthing people should have agency over their lives and the lives of their families. Noone consented to toxic neighborhood oil drilling!
Updates: What’s Happening?
Phasing out oil drilling in Los Angeles
After many years of community pressure, in December 2022 and January 2023 a people-powered campaign helped to pass ordinances at LA City and LA County to phase out oil drilling.
Unfortunately, Big Oil fought back and these ordinances are no longer in place – that said, community members are pushing for them to be readopted, so that oil sites across LA can be shut down.
Protecting health and safety during phase out
While efforts to shut down oil drilling continue, there is also ongoing work to ensure that communities living around drill sites are protected.
At the state level, people power secured a health protective victory over Big Oil in 2024! Big Oil spent $61 million on deceitful efforts to repeal a statewide law protecting neighborhoods from toxic drilling – but due to the advocacy of BWW’s Action Project and other community groups, they withdrew their referendum in defeat.
At the local level, LA County agencies have been instructed to pursue increased health and safety measures around drill sites, and to make sure that local enforcement of these measures is taking place.
Looking to the future
Once all oil drilling sites across LA are on a path to being shut down, the land must be cleaned up in line with community needs. BWW and STAND-LA are working to ensure that oil operators are held accountable for the mess that they created, and that polluted sites are properly remediated!
In particular, BWW is working with a group of local residents regarding the future of the Inglewood Oil Field. It is important that those harmed by decades of toxic oil drilling are actively involved in the process to shut it down, and have a say in what it becomes.
