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This oil pumpjack and storage tank near Shane Court in Arvin are surrounded by residential apartments, single-family homes and commercial businesses. In early 2018, the Arvin City Council voted to place restrictions on new oil and gas operations near neighborhoods in the city, while leaving existing operations alone.

 Henry A. Barrios / The Californian

California's primary oil regulatory agency has succeeded in enacting, even if temporarily, contentious new rules requiring oilfield operators to show that any proposed work will be done at least 3,200 feet away from a home or other gathering place — unless it's to maintain existing production.

Implementation Friday of provisions outlined by last year's Senate Bill 1137 came over the "strenuous objection" of the state's oil industry, which last month turned in what appeared to be more than enough signatures to forestall the regulations.