California escalates legal action over methane leak near Los Angeles

California Attorney General Kamala Harris announced Tuesday that she has filed a lawsuit against Southern California Gas Company, alleging the company failed to report the massive methane leak near Los Angeles in a timely manner. The criminal complaint charges the gas company with one count of discharge of air contaminants and three counts of failing to report the release of a hazardous, as reported by Al Jazeera.

Harris added that the methane spewing from a broken pipeline at the company’s Aliso Canyon facility in Porter Ranch would severely impact California’s efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

The leak caused a public health and state-wide environmental emergency, which “sickened residents of Porter Ranch and compelled them to relocate”, Harris said in a statement.

“While we recognize that neither the criminal charges nor the…”

The state’s Division of Oil, Gas & Geothermal Resources, which is investigating the leak and overseeing efforts to plug it, formalized that with an emergency order to halt injections there on December 10.

The lawsuit alleges that Southern California Gas Co. violated state health and safety laws by failing to promptly control the release of the natural gas and report the leak to authorities. Also included are the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Region 9 and Los Angeles County.

“The immediate issue has been gas system reliability for core customers, which we are working to ensure reliable gas for the rest of winter” given the amount of working gas left at the storage facility, stated the Monday letter to Brown from the California Energy Commission, California Public Utilities Commission and California Independent System Operator. “Meanwhile, the fumes from thousands of tons of methane gas have created a public health nightmare”.

The Aliso Canyon may be only the first of countless gas fields at risk, the California senator said.

SoCalGas is facing more than two dozen lawsuits — including potential class-actions from residents and businesses over the leak as well as from regional air regulators and city and county authorities.

SoCal Gas “will respond to the lawsuit through the judicial process”, said company spokeswoman Stephanie Donovan. Civil penalties, injunctions, and restitution are all sought to hold the company accountable.

“It does increase the pressure on the gas company because they are under fire from more government agencies now”, said Greg Keating, professor of law at the USC Gould School of Law. Affected constituents have reported receiving SoCal Gas bills 4 to 6 times higher than their usual rate for this time of year.

“The methane isn’t particularly toxic, but other gases such as hydrogen sulfide or methyl mercaptan that may be present are (these are the ones that smell and can actually make you feel sick after a while)”. Dianne Feinstein (D-Ca.) that would direct Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz to lead a federal review of the Aliso Canyon disaster and the response to the leak.