Massive gas leak has cost utility company $50 million

Fumes from the leaking wells have caused many residents to complain about a range of illnesses including headaches, nosebleeds, nausea and dizziness.

The order bans SoCalGas from injecting more natural gas into the storage site, and it calls for independent monitoring of air quality.

“It is really going to … amplify the urgency of this issue and really expose how bad the problem is”, Nagy said.

Brown said in a statement he acted based on the requests of people in the community of Porter Ranch and the “prolonged and continuing” nature of the gas blowout at the underground storage facility. Company officials estimate the leak will not be capped until February, or the end of March at the latest. Officials are concerned about potential dangers involved with such a leak of methane gas. “This is the equivalent of the BP oil spill, except it’s on land, in a populated community”, Mitchell Englander, the Los Angeles city councilman representing Porter Ranch, told the New York Times.

– Ensuring Accountability: The California Public Utilities Commission will ensure that Southern California Gas Company covers costs related to the natural gas leak and its response, while protecting ratepayers; and the state will develop a program to fully mitigate the leak’s emissions of methane funded by the Southern California Gas Company.

Governor Brown’s declaration of a state of emergency requires that SoCal Gas and other gas storage facility operators throughout California start conducting daily inspections of well heads and implement infrared imaging technology to detect leaks. The site is one of the country’s largest underground natural-gas storage facilities and can hold enough natural gas to fuel Southern California for a month. Other Craigslist listings have titles such as “Short Term Lease for Porter Ranch Residents”, and “Perfect for Families Affected by Gas Leak”.

“Governor Jerry Brown’s emergency order is both necessary and overdue as it comes on the 79th day since this disaster began”, said Alexandra Nagy, an organizer for Food & Water Watch, an environmental advocacy group. The leaking well didn’t have a working safety valve, which could have stopped the flow of gas once a problem was discovered. Meanwhile, in spite of assurances from several health officials who claimed that the the gas leak poses no long-term health dangers, several people have moved away from their homes and have temporarily relocated elsewhere. The emergency proclamation allows for better coordination and additional resources to help the state fix the leak as quickly as possible.

The leak isn’t tidy, an expert explained to Lobet: The escaping gas can’t simply be siphoned off. And as the Los Angeles Times detailed earlier this week, the pressure of the escaping gas makes it impossible to stop the leak by filling the well from the top.