Westside Community Council presents: The Oil Industry in Ventura County on August 5th–Ventura

see arial, look sans-serif;”>The hot topic of the oil industry in Ventura County will be detailed in an active presentation by Brian Segee, cialis attorney for the Environmental Defense Center, at the upcoming meeting of the Westside Community Council, starting at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 5.

Segee will show photos and discuss industry practices and its dangers during the presentation, which allows for questions from the public. The council meets at the Bell Arts building, 432 N. Ventura Ave. in Ventura.

“People have been interested in this topic for a long time,” noted Lori Steinhauer, Chair of the Council, who sent out an email encouraging the public to participate whether or not as residents of the Westside, as the topic is of interest throughout Ventura and beyond.

The Ventura Sierra Club arranged to have Segee present the talk, offering an analysis of an industry that began locally at Sulphur Mountain in Ojai in 1861 and expanded throughout the county, notably when Ventura oil fields were discovered in the early 1900s.

“Ventura County experienced tremendous population growth during the 1920s due primarily to the discovery of the Ventura Avenue Oil Field in 1916,” according to a history in the county General Plan.

Oil along the Avenue and nearby is still active and has been expanding in the last few years, partly due to a higher price for oil and new methods of extraction, which may include fracking and slant drilling.

Westside Community Council, starting at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 5. Bell Arts building, 432 N. Ventura Ave. in Ventura.

the latest grasshopper rig under construction last December, and it is now in operation right at the Hwy 33 entrance at Shell Road. (Photo by Condor John Hankins)