Oil pumping and health concerns in South L.A.

A man jogs past a gate the urban oil production facility operated by Allenco Energy Co., which has temporally suspended operation in the University Park neighborhood in Los Angeles. City Atty. Mike Feuer filed a lawsuit against the company.  (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)

Nalleli Cobo, 13, speaks to the news media during a press conference in her University Park neighborhood in Los Angeles. Nalleli narrated a video produced by local activists asking that the Allenco oil field not resume operations.  (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)

Lydia Hewlett, 38, of Palms, has filed a wrongful termination suit against Mount St. Mary’s College, which she alleges fired her for complaining to Cal/OSHA about noxious odors wafting from the nearby Allenco Energy Co. site.   (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)

Maria de la Cruz, 48, holds her grandson Mathew Salazar inside their University Park apartment. The family reports that since Allenco Energy Co. temporarily suspended oil production directly across the street from their apartment, the children have stopped having nosebleeds and a cough. The children are now allowed to freely play in the front living room, with the windows open.  (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)

Tim Parker, vice president of operations with Allenco Energy Co. leads a tour of the Allenco facilities last fall.   (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)

Vicente Estrada, 81, waits for a bus in front of his apartment in University Park. “No community should have to live this way, with windows shut, children kept indoors to protect their health, and neighbors seeking relief from intolerable conditions,” says the city complaint.  (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)

A Mount St. Mary’s College campus security officer stands at the open door of an AQMD vehicle. Three years ago, fumes from Allenco overwhelmed the Doheny campus of the college. Thirteen people were treated for nausea and other problems.   (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)

Sabino Valencia cleans son Jonathan’s face after the boy had a nosebleed at their University Park home. Valencia is planning to move his family away from the neighborhood where he has lived for 22 years because two of his five children have nosebleeds nearly every day, and he believes the area is no longer a healthful place to live.   (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)

Brenda Valensia, 7, left, and her brother Steven, 5, watch a movie in their parents’ bedroom in University Park. It is one of a growing number of communities with concerns about newly invigorated wells.   (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)

Teresa Mendoza mixes Kool-Aid for son Jonathan Valencia, 2 1/2, as Sabino Valencia, 36, helps son Steven, 5, with his homework at their University Park home. The couple say their boys have frequent nosebleeds. They’re in the process of seeking medical tests to find out why.  (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)

Monic Uriarte, 55, waters flowers outside her apartment in University Park. She says she began having recurring headaches and bouts of dizziness about three years ago and her daughter started suffering nosebleeds and respiratory ailments.  (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)

This Allenco Energy Inc. facility is concealed behind a 12-foot-high, ivy-covered wall. Between 2009 and 2010, Allenco increased oil production here from 4,178 barrels to 21,239, according to the state Division of Oil, Gas & Geothermal Resources.   (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)

Jonathan Valencia, age 2 1/2, plays in his home in the University Park neighborhood. Later that evening, Jonathan had a bloody nose. His brother Steven and the boys’ parents state their two sons have nosebleeds daily.   (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)

About 40 members of the community gather in front of Monic Uriarte’s building in the University Park neighborhood. In what they called an “action,” they hung a banner that read “People Not Pozos” (“People Not Wells”) and spoke about the air quality in their community.  (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)

Maria Bejarano, 51, signs her friends’ names on paper next to Styrofoam heads representing the symptoms they were experiencing in the University Park neighborhood.  (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)

Paul Caballero, left, and Jose Enriquez, center, air quality inspectors with the AQMD, speak with Monic Uriarte in front of her building in the University Park neighborhood in Los Angeles.  (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)

Residents were asked to sign their names on paper next to Styrofoam heads representing the various symptoms they were experiencing in the University Park neighborhood in Los Angeles.  (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)

Monic Uriarte, 55, right, speaks with Geronimo Duenez in the University Park area of South Los Angeles. Uriarte is going door to door handing out fliers to residents to bring attention to the air quality in their neighborhood.  (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)

Nancy Halpern Ibrahim, executive director of Esperanza Community Housing Corp., speaks during a town hall meeting concerning fumes from a South Los Angeles oil field. She holds a model that she says depicts some of the symptoms, including headaches and nose bleeds, that people living near the field are experiencing.   (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)

At a town hall meeting for residents of a South Los Angeles neighborhood who say fumes from an oil field are making them sick, Thomas Florio suggests that air-quality samples should be taken inside local apartments. The meeting was moderated by South Coast Air Quality Management District officials and held at Mount St. Mary’s College.   (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)

Barry Wallerstein, executive director of the South Coast Air Quality Management District, center, listens to South Los Angeles residents at a town hall meeting express concerns about fumes from a nearby oil field.   (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)