Maybe there’s an end in sight to that terrible gas-leak stench making Porter Ranch residents miserable, but the solution may take another couple months.
A relief well that officials hope will lead to the sealing of a natural gas leak at a Southern California Gas Company facility near Porter Ranch is in the second of five phases and could be completed by late February or late March, according to the utility.
A second relief well is being prepared at the Aliso Canyon Storage Field as a back-up operation, with drilling to begin in January, according to the company.
The leak was discovered Oct. 23 by crews at the facility near Northridge.
Utility officials initially said the issue would be resolved in a few days or weeks but later said the leak would actually take months to fix.
No evacuation orders have been issued for the area, but nearly 1,700 Porter Ranch-area families have been relocated and another 1,000 have applied to be moved, at the cost of the Gas Co.
The Los Angeles Unified School District board unanimously declared an emergency Thursday at two schools affected by the leak and authorized that the nearly 1,900 students be moved to other locations.
The board also authorized its attorneys to pursue litigation against the gas company to recover any costs incurred as a result of the leak.
The vote came despite objections from some parents who said only a small percentage of students at the schools have reported any problems from the gas and complained that the relocation of students will disrupt their schedules while forcing them to wake up earlier and miss out on after-school programs.
According to an LAUSD staff report, Porter Ranch Community School is located about two miles from the facility and Castlebay Lane Charter school is about one mile from the site.
Castlebay, with 770 students will be moved to Sunny Brae Avenue Elementary school in Winnetka, while Porter Ranch Community School, with about 1,100 students, will be moved to Northridge Middle School. The students will be housed in portable classrooms and other available space at each campus.
School board member Scott Schmerelson and Northwest Superintendent Vivian Ekchian said earlier the district has already installed air filters in classrooms at the schools, assigned additional nurses to the campuses and began daily air-quality monitoring.
The Gas Co. has begun providing in-home air filtration options to homeowners as well.
The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors declared a local emergency on Tuesday in response to the gas leak, in hopes of expediting state and local assistance to help with air monitoring and efforts to cap the leaking well.
The Gas Co. opened a Community Resource Center in the Porter Ranch Town Center Wednesday to offer a variety of assistance to residents, including relocation help.
It also has created a website, www.AlisoUpdates.com, to provide updates on the relief well progress, air quality monitoring, community resources and other relevant information.
The Federal Aviation Administration has issued an order banning aircraft from flying below 2,000 feet over the area until at least March 8 out of concern that the gas leak could be ignited from the air.
The Gas Company has been hit with at least two lawsuits, including one filed by Los Angeles City Attorney Mike Feuer.
The utility has disputed characterizations that it dallied in informing authorities of the leak, saying the utility “immediately took steps to address the leak and inform the appropriate regulatory agencies” and communicated on a daily basis with state and local officials “from the outset.”
The company also maintains there is no way to “accurately measure the amount of natural gas being lost from the leak” until after it has been stopped and a “fact-based measurement” can be done.
— City News Service