Abandoned oil wells regulations adopted

The intriguing story of Yorba Linda's 76-year history of oil production added a new chapter recently with a unanimous City Council adopting an ordinance with regulations for building on properties with active or abandoned oil wells.

The new ordinance applies to both developers of vacant properties and owners who want to make certain additions or alterations to parcels with homes and businesses already in place.

The regulations aren't new hurdles to land development, since they replicate rules previously overseen by a state agency--the Department of Gas, Oil and Geothermal Resources--that no longer provides construction site plan reviews and “well status” review letters.

According to agency statistics, properties in what is historically called the Yorba Linda Field have 1,218 “well types,” with 653 wells “having production,” but most are labeled “plugged.” The agency's listing noted 37 leases and 14 operators.

One Vista Del Verde development, Foxfield, with 94 single-family homes, has 55 abandoned wells that required venting before construction, and the 3.2 acre Bastanchury Road land once planned for Friends Christian High School has some 21 wells that needed attention.

A report prepared by city building official Bob Silva notes the ordinance establishes rules that address “major areas of concern,” and enforcement will provide “a high level of public safety” when building on land with active and abandoned wells.

Developers must provide site development maps “indicating the location of all wells and st-ructures with dimensions between each other as well as to the property lines,” Silva noted.

No new structures on vacant or previously developed parcels “shall be constructed within 10 feet of the center of the well on three sides with the fourth side to be maintained open” but city staff “may approve alternative mitigation measures that maintain access to wells.”

And importantly, the ordinance calls for leak testing of abandoned wells, including a sniff test for gas leakage and a visual inspection for oil leakage processed through the Orange County Fire Authority within 12 months before issuing a building permit.

One recommendation from city staff requiring a permanent marker at the center of each identified well was dropped from the final ordinance and replaced by voluntary language.

But if a marker is installed, the device “may be relied on for the exact location of the abandoned well for any future development,” thus saving the property owner from a significant cost involved in another survey pinpointing the exact location of a well.

Yorba Linda lagged in local oil discovery, with the first commercially successful well completed in 1937, 40 years after the first Brea-Olinda well drilled in 1897.

This city's new oil well ordinance draws attention to Yorba Linda's drilling history, and next week's column will delve into how oil changed Yorba Linda history and examine a strange story told about an imagined “black gold” discovery on the Richard Nixon birthplace property.