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LONG BEACH, CA - MAY 29: An oil well pumps next to residential units under construction on Signal Hill May 29, 2003 in Long Beach, California. The Signal Hill Oil Field, now known as the Long Beach Oil Field, reportedly had the world's highest oil production per acre by the mid-twentieth century. Hundreds of companies and individuals became rich on minute leases, some locations so close that derrick legs overlapped. New housing and stores are now being built among operating oil wells. Farther north, a cancer scare has swept over Beverly Hills High School where environmental activist Erin Brockovich and her boss, lawyer Ed Masry, are alleging that toxic fumes from oil wells on the campus have created a "cancer cluster" that is 20 times higher than the national average. (Photo by David McNew/Getty Images)