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#  Too Risky! LA County Takes SoCal Gas to Court … Opposes Reopening of Aliso Canyon

July 24 2017

Written by Beth Cone Kramer.

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THIS IS WHAT I KNOW--Back in October of 2015, SoCal Gas employees discovered a massive natural gas leak from a well within the Aliso Canyon underground storage facility in the Santa Susanna Foothills near Porter Ranch in the San Fernando Valley. Owned by Southern California Gas, a division of Sempra Energy, the gas field covers 3,600 acres.

Many of the fields 100 wells are over fifty years old and had been converted from oil wells to move gas in and out of the depleted underground oil field. When one of these wells ruptured, over 109,000 metric tons of natural gas was released into the atmosphere, causing thousands of local families to be relocated for the four months the leak was active, from October 2015 through February 2016.

Governor Jerry Brown issued a State of Emergency in January 2016. The rupture produced the single largest release of methane in U.S. history.

By one year after the leak was capped, residents were still being treated for medical issues, unsure of future health impact or property values. SoCal Gas agreed to pay South Coast Air Quality Management District $8.5 million, $1 million of which is earmarked to fund an independent health study about the potential effects from gas.

Earlier last week, state regulators had announced that the Aliso Canyon facility could resume natural gas injections, albeit at a reduced capacity.

LA County has asked a Superior Court Judge to block Southern California Gas from resuming its operations in Aliso Canyon, charging that state regulators and SoCal Gas have failed to conduct required safety and environmental studies or release public documents prior to reopening the facility.

The county had filed an earlier suit in March against the California Department of Conservation’s Division of Oil, Gas, and Geothermal Resources, the California Public Utilities Commission, and SoCal Gas, claiming the state had failed to conduct comprehensive safety reviews or an environmental impact review, as required by state law. Last week’s injunction is an amendment to the earlier suit. The county will file a temporary restraining order and a hearing is expected to be held July 28.

The suit also charges that state utility and gas regulators have ignored a storage engineering manager’s warnings about the risks of earthquake damage to the aging wells, according to court papers. A 2009 email written by James Mansdorfer to company officials that is included in the county’s pleading noted that over 100 of the gas wells were vulnerable to being sheared off by a large earthquake along the Santa Susana Fault.

"Today's action reflects the Board of Supervisors' commitment to protect the health and safety of our residents and to require the state to complete the legally mandated studies and mitigate all risks to the maximum extent possible.” -- Supervisor Kathryn Barger.

The failure of SoCal Gas and regulators to address seismic issues prior to reopening the facility places great risk to both area residents and to the environment when we are still unaware of the magnitude of impact of the prior leak. Allowing SoCal Gas to resume natural gas injections at the site does not protect residents, those who work in the area, or the environment.

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