Air regulators considering methane burn-off from gas leak

First things first, we must push for an immediate effort to shut down every natural gas well that lacks basic safety equipment, like shut off valves, before we end up with another Aliso Canyon.

A graph of the benzene levels of samples taken by the Southern California Gas Company’s lab. South Coast Air Quality Management District puts the normal amount of benzene between 0.1. and 0.5 parts per billion; the gas company’s website says that the typical level is more like 2 parts per billion. The utility says that the gas leak doesn’t pose a long term health risk to residents, and local health officials have largely agreed.

The company that owns the leaking well, Southern California Gas Co., has been under fire for not quickly communicating to nearby residents when the leak (which is invisible to the naked eye) began.

The World Health Organization and USA government classify benzene as an undisputed cause of leukemia and other cancers.

“The last of those efforts, which stretched over several days beginning December 22, expanded a crater around the wellhead, state and gas company officials said”.

California’s Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment in 2014 set a series of limits for the amount of benzene people could be exposed to without risking anemia and other noncancerous disorders.

The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health ordered the company to relocate anyone seeking to move while the leak continues.

Michael Jerrett, chairman of the environmental health department at the University of California, Los Angeles, said that because of the limited testing done by SoCalGas early on, it is impossible to know for sure whether there was repeated exposure in parts of the community.

“In the meantime, we’ve got to make sure these families and these kids are safe”, Garcetti said on KNX radio’s “Ask the Mayor” show when asked if whoever is responsible should face criminal charges.

California residents sickened and forced to evacuate their homes in the biggest methane gas leak in state history voiced their frustrations at a public meeting on Friday, with many saying they opposed the resumption of work at the natural gas facility.

Lawmakers want the company to cover the costs of the leak, pay for greenhouse gas emissions and not pass them on to customers through higher rates.

SoCalGas has been unable to establish the cause of the leak, which was first reported on 23 October, and says it may not be contained until March.

A SoCalGas executive told LA Weekly that there hadn’t been a safety valve on the damaged well since 1979, when the old one was removed (since the well in question was at least 300 feet from a home and at least 100 feet from a road or park, it wasn’t required to have a safety valve).

Their monitors showed methane levels at 3.4 parts per billion, about twice the level of natural clean air, the Los Angeles Daily News reported. John Cadiz-Klemack reports for Today in LA on Saturday, Jan. 16, 2016.

“Until a thorough investigation can take place regarding the cause of the leak and the precautions and safeguards necessary to prevent a failure of this magnitude again, it is not appropriate to build more residential development in close proximity to Aliso Canyon”, Antonovish said in a press release. “This is one of the most disruptive, catastrophic environmental events that I’ve seen”.