biggest environmental disaster since the 2010 BP oil spill. A runaway natural gas leak above Los Angeles has emitted more than 150 million pounds of methane since late October. Thousands of residents in the community of Porter Ranch have been evacuated. Two schools have been closed and more than 2,000 families forced into temporary housing. The leak is coming from a natural gas storage facility owned by the Southern California Gas Company, or SoCalGas. The exact cause is unknown, but it’s believed that well casing was breached deep below the ground. Adding to the confusion, the methane is invisible to the eye, so residents can’t see the fumes causing them headaches and nosebleeds.
Methane is a powerful greenhouse gas that contributes to global warming. The leak is so severe, it will account for one-quarter of all California’s methane emissions in just one month. SoCalGas says it could take three to four months to stop it.
The company declined our request to be interviewed, but issued a statement saying, quote, “SoCalGas is working as quickly and safely as possible to stop the natural gas leak at its Aliso Canyon Storage Facility, and we are redoubling our efforts to aggressively address its impact on the community and the environment.”
David Balen talking:
Going back to October 23rd, the afternoon, we were—the community was overtaken by noxious gases. The neighbors were reporting—they thought there might be a home that had a major leak. We did have the gas company come out. They were completely denying that there was ever a gas leak. They went from home to home to home, giving everybody the A-OK. And, you know, the gas company didn’t admit to having a gas leak until the following Wednesday—that would put it probably about around the 28th of October. I had notified the LAUSD the following Monday, which was October 26, that there was an issue and that our children needed to be protected. They had inquired to the LAUSD, as well as SoCalGas, and they were told that there wasn’t a leak, as well, until that Wednesday, when everybody was notified that we did have a major leak.
Erin Brockovich talking:
The scope of it is enormous. And there is another videotape out there that really helps us see pollution, because I think we can’t see it, so therefore we don’t always think that it’s real. And it’s amazing. It looks like a volcano that’s just erupting, that won’t stop. And when you fly over and you have the right lenses and you can—because methane, you know, the gases, you can’t see. But as they use the right screen, you can actually see that it’s like a black plume of smoke through there that just continues to billow out. And the magnitude of it is enormous.
You know, BP was something that they couldn’t stop, that was way deep in the earth, which is exactly what’s happening out here. And as we begin to peel back the layers of the onion, if you will, and find out what happened and why we’re in this type of situation, the idea that they have safety valves in place at 8,000 feet down, that Southern Cal Gas removed and never replaced, which would have prevented this type of catastrophic disaster, is mind-blowing. And so, you’re talking billions of cubic feet of gas under there, and all of this methane, day in and day out, is just billowing out of this site, that’s infecting a very large landmass, is an ongoing, constant assault to the community and a huge square mileage. We’re working with experts now to take all of the information so we can actually see an air plume and the magnitude of how far this has gone.
But this is going to continue. It’s been going on for months. It’s going to continue to go on for more months. As you said, it’s going to contribute to what? One-quarter of all of those emissions for the state of California. It’s outrageous. It’s frightening, at its best. It’s horribly concerning to this community. They are sick. And the impacts keep going on. And that’s what makes it so catastrophic. And it’s frightening for us to have a company like this, where you can’t get down there, and you’ve removed a valve, you didn’t replace that valve, and you now don’t have the ability to stop this for half a year or longer—is a bad scenario.
we need better enforcement around these facilities before we have a disaster that’s even bigger than this one. They are not that informative to the community about where their monitoring sites are.
When you do look at it, it’s certainly not that reasonable, because they’re really not telling you what they’re doing or where they’re monitoring—by way of example, that they are continually finding persistently high levels, at their different monitoring locations, of sulfur, which is very important. I have a sulfur allergy. Many people do. Long term, that can cause health impacts. They’re also finding hydrocarbons, but they’re not very forthwith about what it is they’re finding, but they’re finding it in high concentrations.
And this community needs to know the truth. And if we don’t have it, nobody can protect them. So I do not feel that Southern Cal Gas has been that transparent at all about what they’ve done in the past and what they’re doing today.
David Balen talking:
We’ve been in the process now since early December. We were away for the Thanksgiving holiday. There was no point to start the relocation process, because we were out of town. But we have been subjected to just a lack of [respect] as a community. The gas company is taking their time on relocating people. We’ve had roughly about 2,200 families relocated. We’ve got over 7,000 people waiting to be relocated. I mean, it’s terrible. The lines are getting bigger and bigger by the day. And the gas doesn’t stop. And fortunately, where we live, we have the Santa Ana winds. Sometimes they go to the east, sometimes they go to the west. So some days it’s good, some days it’s terrible. You know, the community is subjected to the smell of the methane, which has the mercaptans in it, and it’s the mercaptans that are making the community sick. We have numerous counts of people with nosebleeds, nausea, animals getting—vomiting, having lesions on their faces. It’s nonstop. And the gas company needs to put a stop to this. They really need to get on the ball and stop this issue.
I hold them all accountable, from governor Jerry Brown to Eric Garcetti to my councilman, Mitchell Englander. All of them have taken their time. Now, Mitchell Englander has been outspoken lately, but all of them were MIA the first five weeks of this issue, I mean. And, you know, this issue is—when it comes out to the—when it comes out at the very end, this is going to be disastrous, at least. It’s going to be a long, outstanding—it’s not only going to affect the community, it’s going to affect pretty much the world. This methane is going to be huge to our greenhouse effect.
this is the second-largest natural gas reserve in the United States. And these agencies should have much stricter oversight, and they don’t.
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Erin Brockovich
renowned consumer advocate and legal researcher. She is working with Weitz & Luxenberg to seek justice for victims of Porter Ranch gas leak. While a single mother of three working as a legal assistant, she helped win the biggest class action lawsuit in American history. The suit was against a multibillion-dollar corporation, the California power company Pacific Gas & Electric Company, which was accused of polluting a city’s water supply.
David Balen
president of Renaissance Homeowners Association, located just outside of the well site. He’s also a member of the Porter Ranch Neighborhood Council and board member of the Porter Ranch Neighborhood School.
— source democracynow.org
[They always tell about methane emission from our paddy fields. What about this kind of leaks for last 100 years?]