Community Corner

Instances of Offshore Fracking Found Off Seal Beach

An Associated Press report finds oil drillers have used fracking techniques off the coast of Seal Beach over the last 20 years.

Oil companies operating off the coast of Seal Beach, Long Beach and Huntington Beach have used fracking techniques at least 203 times in the past 20 years, the Associated Press reported this week.

According to documents and interviews obtained by the AP, oil companies fracked "more than a dozen times" from platforms off of Seal Beach and Huntington Beach alone.

"Little is known about the effects on the marine environment of fracking, which shoots water, sand and chemicals at high pressure to clear old wells or crack rock formations to free oil," the Associated Press wrote. "Yet neither state nor federal environmental regulators have had any role in overseeing the practice as it increased to revitalize old wells."

The Associated Press' initial report on offshore fracking in California in August led state officials to conduct an investigation into the practice in California waters. 

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