I came upon this book at the library.Now I have ordered my own copy as the library copy had pages torn out. I had heard about the oil well lawsuit, but didn't know that a book had been written about it. It's a well researched and well written book. As a graduate of Beverly I'm glad this book was written. I only wish more people knew about it. I was so sad when I read the part about my former teacher,Susan Srere, a veteran of 38 years in the school district, who died soon after she retired. There is something definitely wrong at BHHS-and something wrong with a city which would only allow oil drilling at the high school.

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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.

This intense, clearly and compellingly written, painstakingly researched epic is a human tragedy set in a medical and environmental disaster affecting children and their teachers, and the residents of an entire neighborhood. While similar cancer clusters have appeared in other locations, the clear cause of the cancer cluster at Beverly Hills High School has blinded the local government, parents and other residents, and has caused them to act against the best interests of their children and community, dooming them to a huge risk of an array of early fatal cancers. Horowitz has dug deeply into the scientific background and legal action of this disaster, producing a page-turner, despite the volume of information. If this can happen in a wealthy community with the resources of Beverly Hills, it can happen anywhere (and is). Anyone interested in the intersection between business and environmental and legal issues must read this excellent book, which in my opinion should win the Pulitzer Prize!!!!

Joy Horowitz has written a mesmerizing and disturbing account of what is hidden from us, literally and metaphorically. She weaves compelling personal stories together with a history of Beverly Hills, its glamour and secrets, as she exposes the ubiquitous role of oil in this country. A Beverly Hills High graduate herself, the author infuses her journalistic account with a first hand knowledge of the place and the people about whom she writes. It is a moving and revelatory book. And you will want to underline at least one thing on every page.

I can't believe how much of a page-turner this book is, given the complex and technical nature of the subject. I was hooked on the second page when the author described the magazines in a hospital waiting room having pages as limp as silk. Such details give a texture to the material which could in other less competent hands be as dry as a bone. That and the fact that the author, an alumna of Beverly Hills High, isn't hopeless about the hideous, head-in-the-sand response from the School District and the City of Beverly Hills. It's a truly marvelous book!

It's a rare privilege to be able to join a journalist at the top of her game in her search for the truth. That is what Joy Horowitz invites and allows us to do. I urge everyone awake to accept the invitation and
read this book. Then go wake up someone else and give it to them. It's too
important to miss and it's a thrilling, chilling, moving and finally remarkably human story. Don't miss this one!

Joy Horowitz, a journalist by trade, has taken the discipline, curiosity and objectivity inherent to her profession and applied these attributes to an intensely controversial, emotional topic-whether the industries adjacent to her alma mater, Beverly Hills High School, have, for decades, poisoned the children who are students there.

For many years the presence of an oil drilling platform immediately adjacent to the athletic fields and, on another side of the campus, the proximity to the facilities that process the air for nearby Century City, have been a subject of vigorous debate regarding their potential for causing health hazards. The appearance of cancer "clusters" among the alumni and faculty of Beverly Hills High School was trivialized by school administrators and minimized by city officials.

Four years in the writing, Horowitz has meticulously investigated all angles of this story, mastering the most technical of material and rendering it with an articulate, personal, and comprehensible style. What emerges will change forever the way you think about where you work, live, and play. Of even greater import, it demands that everyday people begin to analyze the impact that "progress" has on our health and safety, and no longer complacently believe that someone else has our best interests at heart.

This is an important book on a crucial topic. While we live in a time of great advances and scientific discovery, the chemicals and by-products that steadily increase in our environment are having greater and greater influence on our cells and ourselves.

We need information. Journalists like Joy are hindered in their ability to get their hands on this information because polluters are far more interested in protecting themselves than their fellow citizens. And although we may like to believe that the government agencies whose mission is to protect us are in fact protecting us, the sad truth is that some presidents actually do the reverse by appointing industry insiders to EPA (and other agency) positions so that business will not have to be bothered with the nuisance of being responsible, or even truthful.

This book tackles these difficult questions very well. Her writing is clear and powerful. This is not a science book though it teaches us much about the science of oil. It is a human story about trying to take control of our lives. We all need to be better informed and she helps us to be just that.

Bravo!