Lawsuit Filed Challenging the CA Coastal Commission for Fossil Gas Expansion: Ballona Wetlands/PDR Oil Field

TWO GROUPS THAT WON IN COURT TWO YEARS AGO, ALONG WITH AN ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENTIST, HAVE SUED.

JULY 28, 2025, Los Angeles, CA…Last week Defend Ballona Wetlands, a community coalition supporting a gentle restoration at the Ballona Wetlands Ecological Reserve in Playa del Rey, filed its second lawsuit in Los Angeles County Superior Court* challenging the California Coastal Commission’s April 11th approval of a fossil gas project that would destroy nearly 30,000 sq ft of vegetation that is to be preserved under a Court injunction issued in 2023 and is part of a larger project. Protect Ballona Wetlands, a community organization of concerned residents, and Robert van de Hoek, an Environmental Scientist who has studied and researched nature and natural processes on the Los Angeles Coast for 35 years, are asking the Court to set aside the approval.

*Case no. 25STCP02707 – Superior Court State of California, County of Los Angeles – conformed copy available at bit.ly/FossilGasLaw2

More than 95% of California’s historical coastal wetlands have been destroyed by fossil fuel facilities, big agricultural operations and overdevelopment. The California Coastal Act is required to follow the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), requiring denial of such a project if there is a feasible less-damaging alternative, and does not allow a project to be divided up or “piecemealed.”

Red-tailed Hawks nest in vegetation that is adjacent to the wells approved for construction work by the California Coastal Commission. Commission staff stated they could simply fly away. That's not how habitat ecology works with birds.

Additionally, the California Department of Fish & Wildlife (CDFW) has been notified that they are in violation of the Court injunction because a Judge invalidated an environmental report prepared by the agency. CDFW was also reminded** that the Court stated they and others should stop development activities at the Ballona Wetlands Ecological Reserve which is a rare coastal ecosystem that has been fought over for decades, and also on adjacent property owned by SoCalGas which stores fossil gas they transport into the Los Angeles coast from distant states.

These properties were clearly included within the project site of an industrial habitat alteration masquerading as a “restoration” and fossil gas infrastructure project area where California Superior Court Judge James C. Chalfant issued a strong and clear injunction order in 2023. The Order stated that they were to “suspend any Project activity that could result in an adverse change or alteration to the physical environment .”** CDFW and SoCalGas are named as Real Parties in Interest in the petition filed this week, as well as on an earlier one filed August 16, 2024.

**https://bit.ly/coastlawgas

Bryan Pease, of Pease & Ijadi, APC, the public interest lawyer who represented Defend Ballona Wetlands in the case related to the flawed EIR for the Ballona Wetlands said that piecemealing this project would extend the life of the Playa del Rey fossil gas operation at a time of global scientific concern over climate change and is not only unacceptable, but contrary to the law and to the stated goals of California Governor Newsom related to climate change and the protection of biodiversity and habitat.

“Why are California’s agencies continuing to bow to the fossil fuel industry when the public is well aware that we need to power down these operations, not create ways to expand them into a potentially grim future caused by projects like this one?” asked Pease.

“We are hopeful the Courts will continue to uphold the strong precedents against piecemealing of such projects so that the public and decision-makers are able to review and know all of the potential impacts that such decisions would bring,” continued Pease.

“There are feasible, less-damaging alternatives, that must be considered under CEQA,” explained Wendy-Sue Rosen, President of Protect Ballona Wetlands.

“The community favors halting the injection of fossil gas beneath this fragile wetlands habitat and opposes SoCalGas plans to expand operations by slant drilling from the bluffs into the oil field – bringing more gas wells and health impacts closer to adjacent neighborhoods,” she added.

Del Rey 19 is one of 18 wells that are slated to be moved or otherwise worked on as part of a greenwashing scheme that misleads the public ~ it's NOT a restoration, but rather an industrial bulldozing operation that would help SoCalGas/Sempra improve and expand their operations so they can continued to peddle fossil gas, which climate scientists say we must stop using due to climate change impacts.

Playa del Rey Oil Field Explained: SoCalGas transports fracked fossil gas across the country via pipelines from Oklahoma, Texas and Colorado and then injects that gas (using more than 200 chemicals, according to the LA County Health Dept.) a mile beneath the soil’s surface under the Ballona Wetlands and surrounding communities. Despite regular calls by scientists to stop using fossil gas (mostly methane) due to an increased awareness of its impact on climate change, SoCalGas and its parent company, Sempra, insist on expanding its infrastructure in Playa del Rey at the Ballona Wetlands. Their plan is part of a greenwashing scheme, misrepresented as a “Wetlands Restoration Project,” involving removing or moving and replacing 18 wells and at least one pipeline that traverses the reserve. One hundred barrels of crude oil a day is produced from this field.

SoCalGas work in the Playa del Rey Oil Field, which is adjacent to and atop the Ballona Wetlands Ecological Reserve and communities of Playa del Rey, Marina del Rey, Venice Peninsula and Del Rey.

The CA Council on Science and Technology concluded in a 2018 report to the state legislature that the Playa del Rey gas storage facility is the most dangerous in the state, due to its proximity to residential neighborhoods, schools and places of worship. The Cities of Los Angeles, Culver City and Santa Monica, as well as the LA County Board of Supervisors, have called on Sacramento to take measures to close the fossil gas and oil operation that has long impacted the community with health issues and several dangerous blow-out incidents.

Community organizer and Defend Ballona Wetlands co-founder Marcia Hanscom has worked to shut down fossil gas and oil operations in California through her affiliation with Last Chance Alliance and Protect Playa Now, and her perspective is that the State is not doing enough to underscore the climate emergency we are already in.

“It’s ‘death by a thousand cuts’ that the state of California is now permitting at this fragile ecosystem that officials thought was valuable enough to pay $139 million for in 2003. We can’t allow two agencies charged with protecting such delicate lands to green light separate projects that –- when looked at all together by Superior Court Judge James Chalfant - was deemed to be unlawful,” stated Hanscom.

One of the coalition’s largest groups, In Defense of Animals, has sent action alerts resulting in more than eight thousand letters being sent to state officials objecting to these deceptive mini-projects.

School children learning about Nature while looking out over the expanse of Area A of the Ballona Wetlands. Oil and gas wells are to the right of this picture, along the Fiji Way Trail. Photo by Walter Lamb, Ballona Wetlands Land Trust

“The State is clearly having trouble extricating itself from the fossil fuel industry. Its approach is not only unhelpful in terms of reaching our climate goals, but it is illegal when endangered species and wetlands, as well as flood protection for local communities, are at risk,” added Environmental Scientist Robert J. van de Hoek, who has repeatedly offered less damaging alternatives to state authorities. He pointed to the lawsuit’s language, which quotes previous Opinions that must be heeded:

"[T]he requirements of CEQA cannot be avoided by chopping up proposed projects into bite-size pieces which, when taken individually, may have no significant adverse effect on the environment." Id. at 1222-1223 (quotes and citations omitted). "Similarly, improper piecemeal review occurs when an agency splits a project into smaller parts that seem more innocuous than the total planned project. Banning Ranch Conservancy v. City of Newport Beach (2012) 211 Cal.App.4th 1209, 1222."

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