Ladera Ranch CA Poets Park Playground Built Over 65-Year-Old Exxon Mobil Oil Well Short Plugged July 2001 During DMB Ladera Re-Abandonment, They Knew.

Ladera Ranch CA Poets Park Playground Built Over 65-Year-Old Exxon Mobil Oil Well That Was Short Plugged in July 2001 During DMB Ladera Re-Abandonment, They Knew. Oil wells really never die, though, Poets Park Ladera Ranch CA is a hell of a place to build a kids playground next to a 65 year old oil well underground. The Exxon Mobiloil well under/near Poets Park in Ladera Ranch CA was drilled down 8,365 feet in 1961 and capped in 1962, but during the July 2001 re-abandonment by DMB Ladera LLC only 351 feet was filled with mud and re-capped, WTH? 

Story behind cancer cluster in Ladera Ranch CA appears to link to old oil wells found underground and possible benzene vapors in the sewer system, any usable drinking water has to be piped in. There does not appear to be a link from the old oil wells underground to the Ladera Ranch drinking water, they are totally separate. The drinking water for Ladera Ranch is stored in underground concrete lined reservoirs. There is no major usable drinking-water aquifer directly beneath Ladera Ranch or in South Orange County, so there is no connection from the old oil wells to the water, there is no aquifer water supply underground. Like most of South Orange County, Ladera Ranch does not rely on local groundwater for its primary drinking supply; water is imported via major regional pipelines. Ladera Ranch, California gets its drinking water imported and piped in from regional water agencies via the Santa Margarita Water District (SMWD) with chloramine and the sulfites in the water.

LADERA RANCH OIL WELLS; I SENT NEWS TIP TO LA TIMES on Saturday Aug 29th, 2026 at 2:34 PST.  

----- Forwarded Message -----
From: Bill Warner <wbipi@verizon.net>
To: tips@latimes.com <tips@latimes.com>
Sent: Saturday, August 29, 2026 at 02:34:07 PM PST
Subject: Ladera Ranch - cancer - oil wells underground

FROM: Bill Warner
Bill Warner Investigations
Sarasota Fl
941-926-1926
site https://www.billwarnerpi.com/

I am a private investigator in Florida, I was asked by a client to look into the Ewing Sarcoma cancer cluster in Ladera Ranch and possible causes. California Dept of Conservation Division of Oil & Gas Wells records reveals two old oil wells, one from the 1920's and one from the the 1960's underground at Ladera Ranch CA that were not properly re-plugged and re-capped in July 2001, there is a lot more. DMB Ladera LLC the developer was aware of the old oil wells in July 2001 during the installation of the infrastructure the electrical field, drinking water pipes and sewer pipes they did a re-abandonment that incurred plugging problems of the old oil & gas wells but continued on with the $100 million dollar project, never making the two oil wells under Ladera Ranch Ca public, it has been a secret for 25 years. https://www.billwarnerpi.com/2026/07/ladera-ranch-ca-built-on-top-of-2.html

Aug 30, 2026 LA TIMES NEWS TIP RECEIVED; Less that 24 hours later on Sunday afternoon August 30th, 2026 the LA Times ran their Exclusive on the oil wells located under Ladera Ranch CA with possible links to ongoing problems. The LA Times article authored by reporter Clara Halter made no mention of my tip on the oil wells, and prior to August 30, 2206 the only publication concerning the oil wells under Ladera Ranch was mine from July 25, 2026,
https://www.billwarnerpi.com/2026/07/ladera-ranch-ca-built-on-top-of-2.html

Under California regulations (managed by CalGEM), a well undergoing official plugging and abandonment is legally required to be filled with stable, heavy drilling mud to prevent structural collapse and fluid migration. At a standard mud weight of 10 pounds per gallon (ppg), the bottom pressure would be 4,350 psi. Under California Geologic Energy Management Division (CalGEM) regulations, plugging a deep well at only 351 feet leaving over 8,000 feet of unsealed borehole is generally not accepted as a permanent or safe abandonment to isolate fluid migration. 

In 2001 the LA Times wrote several articles for promotion of Ladera Ranch. Ladera Ranch, CA was launched by master developer Rancho Mission Viejo LLC and then DMB Ladera LLC with Phoenix-based DMB Associates providing the financial backing for the 4,000-acre Ladera planned community project. Ladera Ranch was heavily advertised as one of the nation's first fully "wired" master-planned communities. Archived promotional strategies and advertising materials from 2001 focused heavily on two contrasting but complementary themes: nostalgic, small-town Americana and cutting-edge, futuristic internet connectivity. In 2001, when home internet was still largely dial-up, Ladera built its entire marketing framework around a private, high-speed community intranet called LaderaLife.com. The overarching theme of the 2001 marketing material was the concept of giving families "roots and wings." Executive and larger premium homes topped out in the $600,000 to $700,000 range. At the time in 2001, less than 2% of the entire Orange County luxury market had crossed the million-dollar threshold. If the old deep drilled oil wells discovered underground in early 2001 at Ladera Ranch had made news in the LA Times, home sales and contracts wold have evaporated and existing home owners would have been filing lawsuits, DMB Ladera LLC most likely would have gone bankrupt. DMB Ladera LLC kept their dirty little secret covered up for 25 years of the poorly re-capped oil wells, until now.

Paul Frost engineer and rep for DOGGR was at Poets Park Ladera Ranch CA job site from 9:30 am to 10:30 am on July 19, 2001. Tom Walker an independent petroleum consultant and senior reservoir engineer in California was working as the rep for DMB Ladera Ranch and was overseeing the re-abandonment project on July 19, 2001. I first posted articles about the two very old oil wells I underground in Ladera Ranch CA on July 25th 2026. 

In my continuing investigation I have recently found that the supposed emergency plugging of the Exxon Oil well under Poets Park in July 2001 by DMB Ladera LLC was forged. Exxon oil well under Poets Park Ladera Ranch improperly plugged in July 2001 by DMB Ladera LLC rep forged report, he used old plugged depths of 1305' and 593' from 1962 closing of the Exxon oil well in their new July 2001 report and sent to California Division of Oil & Gas for approval. 

Under California Code of Regulations Title 14, Section 1723, an operator must place distinct cement barriers at intervals to prevent the migration of fluids and gases from the bottom of the well to the surface, in this case 8,365 feet. A single surface-level plug at 351 feet leaves the bottom 8,000+ feet completely open, allowing deep hydrocarbons, pressurized gases, and toxic brine to travel upward and escape laterally into shallow drinking aquifers. State guidelines specify that when an obstruction is encountered, it must be cleared, clean-drilled, or "fished out" so the underlying intervals can be isolated. If it cannot be cleared, the state requires specialized remedial measures (like "squeezing" cement under high pressure around the obstruction) rather than simply giving up and pouring a shallow plug. 

The exact location off all abandoned oil wells in California is found in Cal-GEM well finder by the oil wells API number. The oil wells location is given in Latitude and Longitude numbers, the well near Poets Park Ladera Ranch CA is 33°32'44.1"N  117°38'10.3"W, it is under the street (Merriweahter Pl) by the sewer manhole cover, it is under the street and not under anyone's house like the media at the LA Times published on Aug 30th, 2026, click on Lat/Lon numbers for map.

MEDIA CORRECTION: The abandoned oil well near Poets Park in Ladera Ranch CA is NOT located under anyone's house as LA Times reported Aug 30, 2026, it is under the street (Merriweather Pl). Note, LA Times reporter Clara Harter it is not a good idea to falsely list a home owners address as the exact location for an abandoned oil well built in 1961, as being under their house, this is libelous and could affect the value of the house. LA Times reporter Clara Harter and reporter Zain Khan at the California Post appear to be somewhat recent college graduates, they must have matriculated from the 'University of Mars', because they sure as hell don't know how to locate anything down here on earth!

See this video above for the proper way to plug a deep drilled abandoned well. The drillers for DMB Ladera LLC did not follow this correct procedure, they did not re-plugged all the way to the bottom and at intervals up to the surface of the old Exxon oil well under Poets Park at Ladera Ranch CA, this well oil well is at risk. DMB Ladera drillers only plugged the 8,365 ft deep Exxon oil well at 351 feet to the surface, way, way short in July 2001!

Re-abandonment of an oil well is the process of re-entering a previously plugged and abandoned wellbore to repair, it is dirty, messy and very noisy work, takes about a week to do one, like the ones mentioned in Ladera Ranch drilled here in 1921 and 1961, to reseal or upgrade its integrity. This is necessary when an older Zombie well's original cement plugs degrade or fail, allowing oil, gas, or toxic wastewater to leak, approximate min cost per well to re-plug and re-cap is about $180,000.

* Note media at LA Times Clara Harter and Zain Khan at California Post, a dry well (DH) is not a well void of all contents you can't take a flashlight and look down the 8,000 foot dry hole and see the bottom, OMG. A "dry hole" (DH) in California—including the one drilled down 8,365 feet in 1961 under Poets Park—does not mean absolutely nothing was, "do a little research and prep work before you publish your conclusions". In the oil and gas industry, a "dry hole" is a strict economic and regulatory term, not a literal description of an empty borehole. The California Geologic Energy Management Division (CalGEM, formerly DOGGR) classifies a well as a dry hole (DH) if it is incapable of producing oil or gas in sufficient quantities to justify commercial completion, they still leak.

While Ewing sarcoma is fundamentally driven by a specific chromosomal rearrangement (the EWS-FLI1 gene fusion), emerging cepidemiological research is investigating whether environmental clastogens—such as benzene and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons found in crude oil and petroleum development—induce the DNA damage and oxidative stress necessary to trigger these oncogenic mutations. Crude oil from a well plugged & capped contains varying amounts of aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) including benzene, toluene, ethyl-benzene, hydrogen sulfide (H₂S) gas, and xylene. PAHs can enter the body (drinking water) and cause changes to cells and chromosomes which then can cause Ewing Sarcoma cancer researchers have reported. There are 100 year old and 65 year old Oil Wells short plugged & capped under Ladera Ranch CA.


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