California Governor Jerry Brown declared a state of emergency yesterday over a massive natural gas leak in Porter Ranch that’s been spewing an estimated 66,000 pounds of methane per hour for more than two months. As thousands of families in Porter Ranch look to relocate while SoCalGas tries to plug the leaking well, landlords in nearby communities have reportedly spiked rents.
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Brown has urged the gas company to come up with backup plans in case efforts to close the blowout fail and ordered emergency regulations for other gas-storage facilities throughout the state. It has accounted for a fourth of the state’s greenhouse gas emissions from methane.
The Los Angeles school board already has declared the crisis an emergency and has moved students out of schools near the leak. The gas leak represents up to 25 percent of methane emissions in California each day.
Do you think the California governor waited too long to make the declaration? The Los Angeles City Attorney has filed suit against the gas company, stating it failed to immediately report the leak and is not adequately equipped to contain it. The City also alleges the leak will significantly add to global warming and increase its burden on residents of Los Angeles.
The 8,000-foot-deep well could hold as much as 86 billion cubic feet of gas – enough to supply all of Southern California for a month, according to the Associated Press.
Porter Ranch Estates sit at the foothills near a Southern…
SoCalGas estimates that the leak might be capped only by late February or early March, but experts say it could take many months.
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The leak is coming from a damaged well below the surface at the Aliso Canyon Underground Storage Facility. Governor’s order also forbids Southern California Gas to perform additional injection of natural gas into the gas site. The utility would work with the state to offset the long-term environmental impact of the methane, Arriola said.
