Yielding to the request of residents and local officials, Gov. Jerry Brown on Wednesday issued an emergency proclamation regarding the Southern California Gas Co. leak above Porter Ranch that is dumping massive amounts of methane into the atmosphere above the community. In the early ’70s, the Southern California Gas Company began storing natural gas around the site. “The state has known for years that aging natural gas infrastructure was a disaster waiting to happen, but officials mostly ignored those risks”.
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The letter is a Democratic undertaking and no Republicans were asked to participate.
The facility, a depleted oil field, was acquired by Southern California Gas Company (SoCal Gas) decades ago for use as a natural storage facility for gas piped in from as far away as Canada, according to the Los Angeles Times. The California Air Resources Board (CARB) will also have to develop a plan to mitigate the leak’s impact, which could have increased the state’s total methane emissions by 25 percent. The leak, which began on October 23, has been spewing methane into the air at a rate of tens of thousands of kilograms (PDF) per hour. The natural gas is mostly piped in from Texas, Colorado and other places and the leak is not associated with California natural gas reserves.
The governor is also initiating emergency regulations at gas storage facilities across the state, including regular inspection and testing and ongoing measurement of the gas flow within wells. On Wednesday, he declared a state of emergency for the locality that supports approximately 30,000 residents.
In the declaration, the governor said that California expected the utility to pay expenses related to leak.
The gas company, which acknowledges that the odorant in natural gas is “unpleasant” but maintains the leak “does not pose an imminent threat to public safety”, has paid to relocate thousands of families living near the breached storage facility. Residents told Brown they want any fines assessed against the gas company reinvested in Porter Ranch’s residential and commercial areas. Company officials estimate the leak will not be capped until February, or the end of March at the latest.
The state had already prohibited SoCal Gas from injecting any more gas into the facility.
Brown met with residents on Monday and expressed concern about the health of people in Porter Ranch and demonstrated that he has been working on the problem, contrary to the complaints of some residents who say he has not been actively involved, said two of the four people who attended the meeting Monday. Experts say it needs months for workers to stem the leak.
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Brodetsky said that the rental market around Porter Ranch has gotten so hot that some home sellers, including a neighbor of his, have taken their houses off the market and put them on the short-term rental market.
