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A California Gas Leak Is the Biggest Environmental Disaster Since the BP Oil Spill

Alissa Walker
12/28/15 6:20pm
Filed to: PORTER RANCH GAS LEAK

A California Gas Leak Is the Biggest Environmental Disaster Since the BP Oil Spill

The largest natural gas leak ever recorded is jeopardizing health and causing evacuations for thousands of Southern California residents. And two months into it, scientists and engineers still can’t figure out a way to contain the seeping gas.

It is easily the worst environmental disaster since BP’s Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010. Tellingly, some experts who stopped that leak are working to contain this one.

On October 23, the Southern California Gas Company discovered a leak in its natural gas storage facility in Porter Ranch, a neighborhood about 25 miles northwest from downtown Los Angeles. Engineers don’t know what caused it, but believe that a well casing failed deep below the surface. It will take at least several more months to find the source and repair the leak, which requires careful drilling far from the tank itself to avoid igniting the gas and causing an explosion.

A California Gas Leak Is the Biggest Environmental Disaster Since the BP Oil Spill

A relief well is being connected to the leaking well in the hopes that all the gas can be diverted there while engineers try to seal the leak. (Dean Musgrove/Los Angeles Daily News via AP, Pool)

For two months the leak has been spewing natural gas into the atmosphere at up to 110,000 pounds per hour. Why is it such a big deal? Although natural gas is a better energy source than coal when it comes to emissions, in its raw form this is the same climate-destroying gas that 195 countries have been trying so hard to keep out of the atmosphere, according to a report by the Environmental Defense Fund, which is tracking the amount of gas leaked in real time:

Methane—the main component of natural gas—is a powerful short-term climate forcer, with over 80 times the warming power of carbon dioxide in the first 20 years after it is released. Methane is estimated to be leaking out of the Aliso Canyon site at a rate of about 62 million standard cubic feet, per day. That’s the same short-term greenhouse gas impact as the emissions from 7 million cars.
That’s not just bad news for local residents, who are suffering from headaches and trouble breathing (two schools have been relocated for the 2016 semester), it’s potentially devastating on a planetary scale. A spokesperson for California’s Air Resources Board told Mashable the leak is dumping the equivalent of “eight or nine coal plants” worth of methane into our already fragile climate.



The leak itself is invisible but new infrared video shows a jet of gas pluming into the foothills, which hopefully will bring some awareness to the issue. I admit, even as a Southern California resident I didn’t understand the gravity of the situation. Let’s hope that not only the leak can be repaired soon but that the state takes swift action to ensure the safe storage and transportation of natural gas in the future. Or better yet, switch the state to entirely renewable energy sources, quick.

Unspoken Catastrophe in Southern California: Porter Ranch Methane Gas Leak, Thousands of Displaced Families, “No Fly Zone” Declared

By Gary TruthKings
Global Research, December 31, 2015
TruthKings 28 December 2015

The Southern California gas company is now claiming they’ve “pin pointed” a massive methane leak in Porter Ranch, California. This methane leak has led to thousands of displaced families. Of course, the term “pin pointed” is being applied in a liberal sort of way. According to the LA Times.

Workers were continuing to drill a relief well and had reached a depth of 3,800 feet about midnight Saturday when they discovered the site of the target well using a magnetic ranging tool, said Anne Silva, a spokeswoman for SoCal Gas. The well extends more than 8,000 feet below the surface.

The company is still “not sure of the exact location of the leak,” Silva said, “but suspects it is within a shallow level — within the first several hundred feet of the 8,700-foot well.”

This is a leak that the Gas Company feels could go on at least into March. Methane freely polluting the air until at least March. Have we yet to grasp the severity of this? This is a man-made natural catastrophe that may well turn out to be larger in scale than the BP oil spill. According to Erin Brockovich, the side effects, which are deep and involved, take less than a week to start feeling.

After only a week of visiting families in Porter Ranch, I am already experiencing the headaches, nausea and congestion that have plagued this community living at the center of one of the most significant environmental disasters in recent history.

We can’t even begin to fathom what the serious longterm consequences over this matter will turn out to be. Making matters worse, SoCalGas has essentially REFUSED to release information on the surrounding air quality, so we have no way of really grasping how bad this really is. The leak is supposedly residing at over 8000 feet underneath the ground, making it a complicated, complex problem to solve. With the potential of liability and litigation, attorneys are filtering responses on both sides. In just one month, this leak will have accounted for 1/4 of the total estimated methane emissions in the entire state of California.

Vomiting, nosebleeds, trouble breathing, are just the beginning of what these people are experiencing on a daily basis. The community has begun the act of transferring school children out of the area. While SoCalGas has helped with some relocation efforts, it hasn’t been nearly enough. Many people have been stuck waiting on a list to be assigned relocation, all the while, their respiratory systems being decimated by infectious gases.

And all the while, a refusal to release air quality data remains on the part of the company responsible for it all. Sick people only know they are sick, but confirmations of why seem to be vague and protected by a wall of legal jargon and advisors. SoCalGas needs to come out and take responsibility. They need to address the people who are sick and with great urgency resolve their issues. This can’t continue to go on.

What shocks me the most is that while this story has received a great deal of coverage, it really hasn’t been the top story. Maybe the holidays? Maybe people just aren’t interested? All the same, this affects us all. This could (and likely is) happen in any of our communities. Want to see what it looks like using infrared? What are people breathing in?



Four more months of this? This is unacceptable. Why do you think they declared a no-fly zone? Is it really for pilot safety or is it more that they don’t want people seeing what’s actually happening on the ground? I would go with the latter and strongly encourage any of you reading to make similar considerations. Of course, pilots likely could get sick flying over it, but this sounds a lot more like a corporation covering up a disaster of epic proportions. There is no end game here. There is no reason to believe that this gas leak won’t be responsible for mass deaths, near and far in years.

Here is Erin Brockovich speaking on behalf of the people of Porter Ranch.

State of Emergency Declared in California Gas Leak

Thousands of residents have been evacuated since a Los Angeles natural gas well began leaking last fall.


By Alan Neuhauser Jan. 6, 2016, at 5:20 p.m.

California Gov. Jerry Brown declared a state of emergency Wednesday in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Porter Ranch, where thousands of residents have been evacuated following a massive, monthslong gas leak.

The leak, from a gas well in a former oil field owned by the Southern California Gas Co. , has spewed more than 77,00 metric tons of methane since the rupture began on Oct. 23.

[Q&A: Jerry Brown Talks Global Warming, Election 2016]

"All state agencies will utilize state personnel, equipment and facilities to ensure a continuous and thorough state response to this incident," Brown's office said in a statement. The office pledged to push SoCal Gas to stop the leak and vowed to protect public health, ensure accountability and strengthen oversight.

SoCal Gas said it likely won't be able to plug the leak until February at the earliest. Engineers believe the leak is coming from about 500 feet below ground.

Methane is a potent greenhouse gas, with an impact on climate change that's 25 times greater than carbon dioxide over a 100-year period, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. While California health officials say the gas is not harmful to long-term health, local residents have reported nosebleeds, nausea, headaches and sore throats.

[ALSO: Global Warming Behind Unprecedented California Water Restrictions]

The well is located about a mile from homes in Porter Ranch, a suburban hillside neighborhood along the city's northern edge.

The Los Angeles Times reported Sunday that the well lacked a working safety valve. While the valve would not have prevented the leak and a SoCal Gas spokeswoman said it was not required by law, it would have stopped gas from continuing to pour from the well. SoCal Gas told state officials that it had replaced a broken safety valve at the base of the well in 1979, but a company executive said in a public meeting last month that it ultimately chose not to do so.

Novem5er » Wed Jan 13, 2016 1:16 am wrote:Is it ironic, given the thread title, that nobody had responded yet?

I'm teasing, but only a little.

When this story broke, for me, it was another sign of disgust at our environmental protections, but I also felt entirely helpless and I didn't dig into more detail like I do for other stories. I've always considered myself a conservationist, if not an environmentalist, but I find myself feeling more defeated by news like this than I feel angered. I was angry for too many years over too many stories. Now I'm just kind of numb about it.

But it is an incredible and important story, so I was glad it was posted so I could encounter it again. Thank you.

"This camera shows profound contamination in the evening and in the daytime in the Porter Ranch area that people aren't aware that it's there, but it's really, really bad," said Dr. Paul Rosenfeld, an environmental scientist.

Residents say they've been harmed by the leak at the Southern California Gas Company's facility that began in October. They say they've suffered headaches, nausea and nosebleeds.

"It's like if you have turned on the stove and left it all day. When you walk outside, you are hit with that gas smell," said Paige Hemmis.

As a co-host of the former ABC series "Extreme Makeover Home Edition," Hemmis helped build homes for people in need across the country. Now she fears her own home is not safe.

Her dog Juneau has been seriously ill, with lesions on her mouth and face. Doctors can't figure out what's wrong.

"They said it could be the gas exposure. We just don't know," Hemmis said.

Officials with the Southern California Gas Company plan to meet with residents on Wednesday about the Aliso Canyon gas leak.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is on the team of attorneys preparing to take legal action against the gas company on behalf of residents. The company says it could take months to repair the leak.

Novem5er » Wed Jan 13, 2016 1:16 am wrote:Is it ironic, given the thread title, that nobody had responded yet?

I'm teasing, but only a little.

When this story broke, for me, it was another sign of disgust at our environmental protections, but I also felt entirely helpless and I didn't dig into more detail like I do for other stories. I've always considered myself a conservationist, if not an environmentalist, but I find myself feeling more defeated by news like this than I feel angered. I was angry for too many years over too many stories. Now I'm just kind of numb about it.

But it is an incredible and important story, so I was glad it was posted so I could encounter it again. Thank you.