Utility faces criminal charges after massive gas leak prompts state of emergency

A La Costa resident says his mother would be alive today if not for the ongoing gas leak near Porter Ranch in San Fernando Valley.

On Jan. 16, Tera Lecuona, resident of the Porter Ranch area of Los Angeles, holds a protest sign during a hearing over a gas leak at Southern California Gas Co.’s Aliso Canyon Storage Facility.

The criminal complaint charges the company with four misdemeanor counts. In addition to the Air Resources Board, these agencies include the California Energy Commission, the California Public Utilities Commission, the Department of Fish and Wildlife, the Division of Oil, Gas and Geothermal Resources, the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services, the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board, the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment and the South Coast Air Quality Management District. The gas company’s also facing a count of “discharge of air contaminants”, also starting from October 23 until now, since the leak still hasn’t been totally stopped.

Lawmakers in Congress have urged the USA secretary of energy to investigate the leak, and federal regulators are crafting new safety standards for underground natural gas storage facilities. “Beyond that, we do not comment on pending litigation and will respond to the lawsuit through the judicial process”, SoCalGas spokeswoman Kristine Lloyd said in an email.

The criminal charges come on the same day that California Attorney General Kamala Harris announced a civil lawsuit against the company for violations of the state health and safety code.

“We will do everything we can as prosecutors to help ensure that the Aliso Canyon facility is brought into compliance”, Lacey said in the statement.

A member of the Porter Ranch Neighborhood Council, however, later told Democracy Now! and other media that they weren’t notified of the leak until about five days after it began.

The lawsuit, filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court, seeks unspecified civil penalties, and court orders requiring the utility to immediately take all steps necessary to mitigate the leak.

The leak is invisible to the naked eye but can be viewed with infrared cameras.

“The impact of this unprecedented gas leak is devastating to families in our state, our environment, and our efforts to combat global warming”, Harris said.

The company also has accelerated the withdrawal of surplus gas supplies stored beneath the site to diminish underground pressure on the ruptured well pipe. The case is scheduled to be arraigned in Santa Clarita on February 17. “The gas leak deteriorated her health and ultimately hastened her death”.

The firm has asserted that “the leak does not pose an imminent threat to public safety”, but has apologized for the annoyance of the odorant in natural gas. It is painstaking after the crews have drilled more than 8,400 feet – or 1.6 miles (2.5 km) – since starting on December 4.

“She realized that she is probably going to be the first of what may be, for the next few years, many casualties of this man-made disaster”, Rothman said.