Assembly Member Warren Furutani recently held a Town Hall meeting for Carson Carousel residents. For the past five years residents have had their lives turned upside down since, in 2007, it was discovered that their homes were built on contaminated soil. Environmental testing revealed high levels of benzene and methane under hundreds of homes. The contamination was traced to Shell oil wells buried under the homes. Shell Oil Company operated a crude oil storage facility on the site from 1924 to 1966. The oil was stored in below-ground reservoirs lined with concrete, but some of that oil appears to have seeped into the soil and the groundwater.

Community members filled up the Wilmington Middle School cafeteria to voice their frustrations with their ongoing battle with Shell oil. Los Angeles Superior Court Judge William Highberger dismissed a negligence and nuisance lawsuit filed against Shell and the developers of the Carson Carousel housing tract. Representatives from the Los Angeles Water Quality Control Board, which is in charge of the clean-up efforts, say it won’t be an easy task and may take up to ten years to complete. But many residents do not like the idea of having to wait that long for a solution.

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