SAN Fernando Valley residents have been impacted for nearly three months by a natural gas leak in Aliso Canyon, and a government gas company is being held responsible.
The South Coast Air Quality Management District (AQMD), which regulates Southern California’s air quality, sued Southern California Gas Co. on Jan. 26, accusing the company of negligence in the massive gas well leak that has forced thousands of residents to evacuate, the Los Angeles Times first reported.
AQMD said the utility’s negligence extended to the design, construction, operation and inspection of one of the wells at the Aliso Canyon Natural Gas Storage Facility near Porter Ranch, according to the civil complaint filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court.
The well, one of 115 at the sprawling storage facility, has been leaking since Oct. 23, sending methane gas into the atmosphere above the Los Angeles Basin. The gas has a noxious additive that has also entered the air, creating a rotten egg-like smell.
The Environmental Defense Fund has estimated the leak to be close to 100,000 tons of greenhouse gas methane into the atmosphere, according to the Los Angeles Daily News.
However, the rate of leakage has slowed, dropping to 18,400 kilograms per hour of methane as of mid-January. At its peak in November, the well released 58,000 kilograms of methane gas.
Homeowners in the Porter Ranch neighborhood are now in temporary housing, following the gas leak rupture. Many residents say they have experienced headaches, nausea, and other illnesses as a result of the leak, said NBC Los Angeles.
The AQMD lawsuit alleges the Southern California Gas Co. “violated air quality regulations and state law for each day that the well continues to leak,” and it blames the utility for a “sluggish response to what has become a regional public health threat.” The suit seeks up to $250,000 in civil penalties for each day that a specific violation has occurred.
Even California Secretary of State Alex Padilla was forced to move his family to a Burbank hotel, where they have been living for the past month and a half.
“Between the kids and my wife feeling some of the side effects we have heard in the news, not taking any chances with three little ones we are temporary dislocated…in the meantime, we are in a hotel in Burbank and we are making do,” Padilla said.
“It’s not just bridges, it’s not just schools…but whether it is water or gas infrastructure it has to be maintained,” he added. “To know about what we don’t know about methane leaks and the amount of gas that has come out of that Aliso Canyon facility is very concerning to me as a father and a husband.”
Kristine Lloyd, a spokeswoman for Southern California Gas, said the company will not comment on pending litigation.
“It seems there are also grounds for claims of negligence against the gas company since the leaking well’s subsurface safety valve, which was not required by law but could have stopped the leaking fumes, was reportedly removed decades ago and never replaced,” said Greg Keating, a professor at USC’s Gould School of Law.
“But determining how much injury residents will suffer beyond months of relocation with regard to home prices and any potential serious health effects will be more challenging.”
The company has tried several times to plug the well by drilling a relief to intercept leaking gas, but the efforts were unsuccessful.
The company said that the relief well had reached 8,400 feet below the surface, about 200 feet away from where it is designated to enter the damaged well.
According to the lawsuit, the air quality agency has received more than 2,000 odor complaints from those who live and work near the Aliso Canyon facility. The leak has also made nearby businesses temporarily uninhabitable.
“Residents are clearly owed damages for that dislocation,” said Keating.
“We bought the home a year and a half ago, never imagining our American dream come true would be interrupted like this,” Padilla told NBC 4.
The lawsuit is one of several filed against the gas company since the leak was first reported.
SoCalGas could either deny all health-related claims, estimate the end results of the leak, or do medical monitoring (in which the gas company sets up a fund and will award damages only if and when harm due to gas exposure becomes clear), Keating said.
This week, a Know Your Rights’ Legal Town Hall featuring Prof. Keating and other legal experts will be held in Porter Ranch to allow members of the community to express their concerns, as well as get information about the legal process, their rights as citizens, and how they can protect their families.
