Expressing skepticism that the project can ever be made safe, Rep. Brad Sherman, D-Sherman Oaks, Tuesday toured the site of the natural gas leak at the Southern California Gas Co.’s Aliso Canyon Storage Facility in Porter Ranch.
Accompanied by Los Angeles City Councilman Mitch Englander, SoCalGas President Dennis Arriola and SoCalGas Chief Engineer Jimmy Cho, Sherman was given a tour of the Aliso Canyon site and received an update on efforts to plug it.
After the tour, which media were not permitted to attend, Sherman said the sound of gas leaking was unavoidable on the site. He also stressed the age of the storage wells.
“It sounds like a hell of a lot of gas escaping from a large pipe,” Sherman told reporters after the tour. “We went up there and we learned that of the 114 other wells, 18 are what they call vintage wells. That is to say that they’re there from the beginnings of the rock ‘n’ roll era of the 1950s.”
Southern California Gas Co. first reported the leaking well Oct. 23, and since then an estimated 77 million kilograms of methane have been released. Communities near the site have been dealing with foul odors and nosebleeds, headaches, nausea and other short-term ailments. Pets have also displayed unusual behaviors and such ailments as nosebleeds.
The Gas Co. announced Monday that it expects to stop the leak by late February, if not sooner, as work on its relief well project is proceeding ahead of schedule.
The relief well drilling began Dec. 4 and is expected to reach the bottom of the well at a depth of about 8,500 feet below the surface next month, according to Cho.
“We are focused on stopping the leak as quickly and safely as possible, mitigating the environmental, and supporting the community,” he said. “Our schedule to control and stop the leak in February is consistent with the updated plan we have submitted to state regulators.”
The Gas. Co. also said it has abandoned a plan to capture and burn the leaking natural gas. The announcement came just two days after the South Coast Air Quality Management District announced that the company’s proposal to burn the gas would be placed on hold because of the risk of a catastrophic explosion.
The AQMD said the burn plan needed approval from state and federal regulators, along with fire officials. The state Public Utilities Commission had given the gas company until today to address concerns about capturing and burning the gas, noting that the design calls for blowers with electric motors, which could spark an explosion.
An AQMD hearing board that had been hearing testimony about the plan to capture and incinerate the gas will still meet again Wednesday to continue discussing a wide-reaching enforcement order aimed at minimizing the leaking gas.
“Our proposed order would have required SoCalGas to capture and dispose of a portion of leaking gas only if SoCalGas along with federal, state and local regulatory agencies deemed is safe to do so,” according to AQMD executive officer Barry Wallerstein. “While that provision is now moot, the order still contains many important requirements to minimize leaking gas, monitor emissions and help prevent a similar incident in the future.”
According to AQMD, the proposed order would, among other issues, require SoCalGas to permanently shut down the leaking well, fund an independent health study to assess effects to residents, develop an enhanced leak-detection system for all wells at the facility, report all odor complaints made to the company since Oct. 23 and stop any further injection of natural gas into the storage facility while maximizing withdrawals.
Meanwhile, Los Angeles County public health, emergency management and fire officials plan to hold a news conference Wednesday to give an update on their response to the leak and efforts to address potential health impacts for residents.
Residents of roughly 2,500 homes have been relocated out of the Porter Ranch area by SoCalGas, with about 1,500 other households awaiting relocation, according to the utility.
Students at two schools in the area have also been moved to other campuses away from the leak.
The county Board of Supervisors today voted their support of proposed legislation announced last week and introduced today by Sen. Fran Pavley, D- Agoura Hills, to step up inspections of aging wells statewide.
The board also signaled its intent to try to block two developments proposed for the area.
Supervisor Michael Antonovich recommended working with the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy to try to purchase properties proposed for development as Hidden Creeks Estates and Deerlake Ranch.
“In light of the perpetual gas leak emanating from the storage facility and the fact that no entity can state that this leak will not happen again at any of the Gas Company’s other 115 storage wells, it is prudent to not allow any further residential development that is next to the facility,” Antonovich and co-author Supervisor Sheila Kuehl wrote in their motion.
Antonovich and Kuehl hope to permanently designate the land as open space.
–City News Service