Los Angeles will ban oil drilling in the city, ie in settlements. City councilors yesterday voted to ban the construction of new wells and stop work on existing ones.

According to Western media, thousands of active springs are located in densely populated neighborhoods (mostly where people with low incomes), next to schools, homes, parks, shopping malls or cemeteries. Residents and environmental activists have long campaigned for their removal, saying they pose a health risk.

"Oil drilling in Los Angeles may have made sense at the beginning of the 20th century, but it certainly does not make much sense now that we have become a megalopolis in the 21st century," said Paul Crecorian, chairman of the City Budget Committee.

According to the Department of Urbanism, in Los Angeles has 26 oil and gas fields and over 5.000 wells.

Ashley Hernandez, who advocated for the closure of the wells, said that as a child she became ill, had a nosebleed and an eye infection. "I have lived all my life in the most exposed parts of the neighborhoods near the oil wells and I can not begin to express how I feel while I am here at the moment!" She said after the vote.