Photos by Brian Addison.

Protestors gathered this morning in front of City Hall to chant appropriated Beatles tunes in the name of anti-fracking and protecting coastal shores as the California Coastal Commission (CCC) met for its March gathering in Long Beach.

The protest group, led by the Center for Biological Diversity, wore hazmat suits and carried painted fish as well as boogie boards to call on CCC leaders to address fracking. 

The controversial practice of fracking, or hydraulic fracturing, involves shooting sand, water, and various chemicals at extremely high pressure at old wells or rock formations in order to free untapped oil. Despite a lack of direct evidence that fracking has caused any severe environmental damage—including oil spills or chemical leaks, particularly into water tables—environmentalists worry that the lack of oversight in the practice could lead to disaster.

“Fracking is a dirty, dangerous practice that has absolutely no place in California’s fragile ocean ecosystems,” said Miyoko Sakashita, the Center’s oceans director, in a press release. “The Coastal Commission has the power and the duty to protect surfers, swimmers and wildlife from fracking pollution and the increased risk of an oil spill. We need a halt to fracking to safeguard our beaches and our coastal communities.”

Fracking is nothing new, having been conducted off the coast of California for nearly six decades. In Long Beach, fracking first began in the early 1970s on the THUMS oil islands, with a large concentration of the practice developing in Long Beach since it is home to the nation’s third largest oil field. Long Beach’s lucrative oil supply offered $581M in profits in 2013, with $352M of that going into state coffers.

Relative to the amount of wells drilled per year, fracking represents less than 10% of Long Beach’s oil operations, according to Kevin Tougas, Oil Operations Manager of the Long Beach Gas & Oil Department. 

“The City has always made protecting the environment the top priority. All fracking in the Long Beach area has been completed in full compliance with all state and federal regulations and there has not been any known instances of harming the fresh water zones, humans or marine life.”

Those aforementioned state regulations are under way to become constrained with additional red tape with the state’s SB 4 bill which will require oil companies to have reporting requirements on how they implement the practice. Passed last year, the new rules are expected to take effect in 2015.

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