Toxic high, 90210.Parts per Million parts per million mg/kg or ml/l; see ppm. : The Poisoning of Beverly Hills High School Beverly Hills High School (usually abbreviated as "Beverly" or as "BHHS") is the only major public high school in Beverly Hills, California. (The other public high school in Beverly Hills, Moreno High School, is a small alternative school located on Beverly's campus. (Viking $25.95) by Joy Horowitz examines the legal battle over the oil wells and power plant next to Beverly Hills High School. As rare cases of cancer and other terminal illnesses touch Horowitz's classmates Classmates can refer to either:
Horowitz's book provides a fascinating behind-the-scenes look at the trial that ensued over this exposure, including accounts from Beverly Hills Beverly Hills, city (1990 pop. 31,971), Los Angeles co., S Calif., completely surrounded by the city of Los Angeles; inc. 1914. The largely residential city is home to many motion-picture and television personalities. alumna, doctors, city leaders, residents and legal authorities such as high-profile lawyers Erin Brockovich and Edward Masry. Horowitz allows the reader an intimate view into a wealthy town divided. With charges against the oil companies, the power plant, the city of Beverly Hills and the school district, the legal battle is long, messy mess·y adj. mess·i·er, mess·i·est 1. Disorderly and dirty: a messy bedroom. 2. Exhibiting or demonstrating carelessness: messy reasoning. and as Horowitz implies, incomplete. Parts per Million raises important questions concerning civic and corporate responsibility, environmental toxicity, oil dependence and the restriction of public information. And as the author writes, "If it can happen in Beverly Hills, it can happen anywhere." [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] 
Joy Horowitz doesn't tell it like it is. No one ever proved that the oil wells on the Beverly Hills High School campus ever caused any illness. There is no credible scientific proof. Just hysterical allegations.<br> Since I had experience in closing down many oil wells in Torrance, I was hired by the City of Beverly Hills in 1973 to get rid of the oil wells on the Beverly Hills campus. At that time they were scattered on the campus. Oil was selling at about $2.00 a barrel and the oil well field was just about exhausted. Only a major investment in injection technology which would have forced the oil out of the sands would have made the wells productive. The owner did not have the money. The Beverly Hills School Board also wanted to get rid of the wells but did not know how to do it.<br> I began preparing a strategy for closing down the unproductive wells and the necessary ordinances. But at the time, the owners, the Beverly Hills Oil Company, were just looking for a way to get out, hoping that they would be bought out. However, at that time the nation suffered from an oil embargo and the price of oil shot sky high and the value of the oil leases sky rocketed. <br> The oil embargo was eventually lifted and oil prices came down but still were significantly higher thus the oil company 's revenues from even its limited production of oil were sufficient to not only cover the costs of production but to make a tidy profit. But if the company could expand its drilling and recover the oil remaining in the oil field there were much better profits. <br> Nothing really happened though until Proposition 13 passed which significantly reduced the amount of revenue available to the School District. The oil company then came up with a proposal that appeared to be win-win for both the oil company, the School District, and many property owners in Beverly Hills who had leased the oil rights to the oil company. The oil company proposed to consolidate all of its wells into one drill site which would eliminate the wells scattered around the high school and they would pay substantially higher royalties to the School District and the property owners.<br> There was however, a fly in the ointment. It had to be approved by the City. The City Council wanted the oil wells to go away but there was considerable political pressure on the Council to at least consider the proposal. Adding to the problem was that the School District has no one with any experience with oil drilling so the task fell to the City and primarily on me. I am an opponent of oil drilling having been involved in opposing oil drilling on the coast in the Pacific Palisades and also trying to get the Occidental Oil drilling site on Pico in West Los Angeles shut down.<br> Consequently, the City required an extensive Environmental Impact Report which was prepared entirely by independent consultants hired by the City but principally recommended by me. Every possible hazard including health hazards were explored and if there was even the slightest hint of a hazard, strict conditions were imposed, many of them expensive. For example, the oil company had always transported the oil from the site by truck, but the City required that the oil be transported by pipeline. There were nearby oil pipelines from other sites in Century City to connect to.<br> The City also wanted the drill site extensively camouflaged so that it did not look like an oil well. However, the City had imposed so many conditions on the site, that the costs of better camouflaging the site would have left almost no profit for anyone to divvy up so that condition was dropped and the existing tower was constructed. At that time oil was selling at around $18 a barrel.<br> I am satisfied that the conditions imposed upon the drilling were so stringent, particularly on air pollution, that there was no hazard whatsoever to the students and faculty of the high school and knowing how tough the City enforces conditions, that there was no risk of any health hazards to people or to the employees working on the site.<br> That is why when Erin Brockovich filed the law suit I knew that it was bogus and complete nonsense, particularly when the case was laid out. If anyone was exposed to <br>potential harm it was the employees and there were no reports of any illness among them. Moreover, oil wells have been on the High School campus since it was built in 1928 and those wells never had the protections that the wells now have and there never were any reports of illness. Additionally, there are thousands of oil wells in the County and few have the protections built in to the high school site and there have been no reports of any illnesses that resulted from those wells.<br> The more Brockovich laid out the case the more apparent it was that she was relying on "junk science." Clearly some of it was absolutely bogus. But for those unfamiliar with what is involved, her case sounded extremely reasonable. I have thought at times that she may have grossly exaggerated the case in order to stir up public hysteria in hopes of winning a major settlement. I suspect she knew that she could never prove the case if it went to trial.<br> Joy Horowitz appears to be one of those caught up in the hysteria and her book reflects that hysteria. It is obvious that she doesn't have the scientific training to understand how to prove the connection between a source and the cause of an illness or she would have understood why the case was a hoax. |
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