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Aliso Canyon Disaster Highlights Risks, Inadequate Safety Rules Governing Natural Gas Storage

March 28, 2018

Aliso Canyon Disaster Highlights Risks, Inadequate Safety Rules Governing Natural Gas Storage

Aliso Canyon's leaking natural gas storage well in southern California

“SoCalGas had lenient requirements for infrastructure record keeping, no comprehensive risk management plan, and no testing programs or plans in place to remediate substandard wells,” concluded Najmedin Meshkati, University of Southern California professor of civil and environmental engineering and senior author on the report. The study was published in the Journal of Sustainable Energy Engineering.

In addition to its notable contribution to global warming, the massive methane leak also required the evacuation of two schools and at least 8,000 residents for months while SoCalGas tried to stop the leak.

The California Public Utilities Commission also issued a report evaluating the failed storage well at Aliso Canyon, and noted that “severe external corrosion was observed in the failure areas.” Based on these reports, it appears that SoCalGas had a policy of allowing its gas storage wells to operate until they failed, such as at Aliso Canyon.

DeSmog reached out to SoCalGas for comment on the University of Southern California study but did not hear back.

A History of Industry Self-Regulation

In theory, outside inspectors could have potentially caught some of these safety issues during regular evaluations of the infrastructure. But as the University of Southern California’s report details, that is not how the natural gas storage industry operates in the U.S. Instead, its description of the circumstances leading to the leak reads as much like a recipe for future disaster as an analysis of past failures. Previously, the industry has largely been allowed to self-regulate and the trend continues today.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Blackout California

June 26, 2016

Blackout California

The shutdown of the leaking Aliso Canyon underground gas storage facility has caused a loss of about 70bcf of stored gas that Southern California utilities have historically counted on to see them through the hot, high-demand summer months. The California Independent Service Operator (CAISO), which manages the California grid, estimates that as a result all customers should expect to be without power for a total of 14 days this summer. Some 21 million Southern Californians stand to be directly affected.

Are blackouts on such a scale likely? It seems they are. According to Business Insider

SoCalGas uses Aliso Canyon to provide gas to power generators that cannot be met with pipeline flows alone on about 10 days per month during the summer, according to state agencies. In the summer SoCalGas strives to completely fill 86.2-billion cubic feet (bcf) Aliso Canyon to prepare for the upcoming winter heating season when gas demand peaks. State regulators, however, ordered the company in January to reduce the amount of working gas in Aliso Canyon to just 15 bcf and use that fuel to reduce the risk of gas curtailments and power interruptions this summer. State regulators will not allow SoCalGas to inject fuel into the facility until the company inspects all of its 114 wells.

And from the Wall Street Journal

But the pipelines can only bring in about 3 billion cubic feet of working gas a day into Southern California, below the daily demand, which gets as high as 5.7 billion cubic feet.

Figure 1: Remedial work in progress at Aliso Canyon

Aliso Canyon has a capacity or 86bcf but presently contains only 15bcf, representing a shortfall of 71bcf. How much gas generation does this represent? According to the conversions given in the BP Statistical review it’s 7.7 TWh. And how much gas does Southern California consume in the summer, which will continue for about another three months?

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

California Lawmakers Move to Prevent Another Disastrous Gas Blowout at Aliso Canyon

May 14, 2016

California Lawmakers Move to Prevent Another Disastrous Gas Blowout at Aliso Canyon

Aliso Canyon is the largest natural gas storage facility in the western U.S. and the site of the October, 2015 blowout that spewed nearly 100,000 tons of methane into the skies above the San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles for nearly four months.

The bill was co-authored by Senator Fran Pavley (D-Agoura Hills), and Assemblyman Scott Wilk presented SB 380 on the floor of the Assembly on April 28 and it passed both chambers with overwhelming bipartisan support.

The new law requires that all 114 wells at Aliso Canyon undergo additional tests to detect any possible leaks.

Wells can go back into use only after passing four additional structural integrity tests, and wells that have not been fully tested and certified must be temporarily plugged and isolated from the facility.

New injections could only resume if well integrity is proven “to prevent damage to life, health, property, and natural resources and other requirements.”

Senator Pavley said in a prepared statement that the law “puts public safety first.”

“Now that the news cameras have left Aliso Canyon and moved on, the governor and the Legislature have shown that their memories are vivid and that a hard lesson has been learned. We must do all we can to prevent another disaster.”

The bill also sets a deadline of July 1, 2017 for the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) to open a proceeding to evaluate the feasibility of scaling back or shutting down the facility.

 

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Residents Flee, Home Sales Collapse 44% Following Biggest Gas Leak In History

April 7, 2016

Residents Flee, Home Sales Collapse 44% Following Biggest Gas Leak In History

The “Fukushima class disaster” that emerged from Aliso Canyon’s worst ever gas leak has left behind more than just medical and human issues. According to RealtyTrac, in the three months following the discovery of the gas leak in late October 2015, home sales in the Porter Ranch zip code (91326) plunged 44%, and “market disruption is further signified by the number of families that requested relocation out of the Porter Ranch area.”

As a reminder of just what happened in the Porter Ranch area… 

“the enormity of the Aliso Canyon gas leak cannot be overstated. Gas is escaping through a ruptured pipe more than 8,000 feet underground, and it shows no signs of stopping,”

The following map shows the spread of methane over the Los Angeles area and researchers from Eco Watch report that elevated levels of natural gas have been detected as far as 10 miles from the leak:

LA-leak

And residents in the Porter Ranch are are suffering significant health problems…

On February 18, SoCalGas and the national media declared the“worst methane gas leak in U.S. history” permanently sealed,but just over a month later, hundreds of Porter Ranch residents who evacuated — and are now returning home — are suffering the same symptoms they suffered when the gas leak was active. They are experiencing nausea, dizziness, fatigue, headaches, nosebleeds, and many, including children, are also experiencing a new ailment: irritated skin rashes across their bodies.

Neither SoCalGas, which owns the Aliso Canyon facility, the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, nor any other government agency has provided a concrete explanation for these continued symptoms. In fact, one of Los Angeles County’s top medical officials recently told local physicians to refrain from performing tests to determine what is causing the symptoms. 

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

This Is What’s Happening to People Who Live near the Worst Gas Leak in US History

March 26, 2016

This Is What’s Happening to People Who Live near the Worst Gas Leak in US History

(ANTIMEDIA) Porter Ranch, CA — On February 18, SoCalGas and the national media declared the “worst methane gas leak in U.S. history” permanently sealed, but just over a month later, hundreds of Porter Ranch residents who evacuated — and are now returning home — are suffering the same symptoms they suffered when the gas leak was active. They are experiencing nausea, dizziness, fatigue, headaches, nosebleeds, and many, including children, are also experiencing a new ailment: irritated skin rashes across their bodies.

Neither SoCalGas, which owns the Aliso Canyon facility, the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, nor any other government agency has provided a concrete explanation for these continued symptoms. In fact, one of Los Angeles County’s top medical officials recently told local physicians to refrain from performing tests to determine what is causing the symptoms. Late last week, preliminary lab tests from an independent UCLA study found evidence of benzene, a carcinogen, in at least two Porter Ranch homes. Benzene was reported to have been released in the 100 metric tons of methane that spewed into the Los Angeles basin for four months — a fact SoCalGas previously attempted to downplay and withhold.

Reemergence of Symptoms

On March 4, Los Angeles City Councilmember Mitchell Englander issued a press release reporting the Department of Public Health had received at least 150 complaints of reemerging symptoms, including nosebleeds, dizziness headaches, nausea, and skin rashes. Now, the Health Department says it has received 300 complaints since residents began moving home after SoCalGas told them it was safe to do so.

Many residents have said the rashes, which can be extensive, are new and did not occur during the initial, months-long gas leak from October to February. During that time, thousands of families were evacuated and the Department of Public Health received 700 health complaints.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

California’s Massive Gas Leak: Hazards of Industry Long Known


January 11, 2016

California’s Massive Gas Leak: Hazards of Industry Long Known


Expert research, public record details many risks of underground gas storage.

AlisoCanyon_610px.jpg

Overhead photo of the leaking Aliso Canyon well pad near the Porter Ranch community in Los Angeles County, Dec. 17, 2015. Credit: Earthworks, Creative Commons licensed.

A massive methane leak from an aging underground gas storage facility in a community north of Los Angeles illustrates the grave environmental and safety hazards that come with operating gas storage fields near cities due to the frequency of well leaks, experts have shown.

Since Oct. 23, thousands of citizens have been displaced or sickened with nosebleeds and headaches by hydrocarbon pollution from a leaky injection well site at the Aliso Canyon storage facility, one of the largest underground storage sites in North America.

Industry stores methane underground in depleted oil and gas fields, aquifers or salt caverns for future use because it is more economic than storing the gas in tanks on the surface.

UNDERGROUND GAS STORAGE: A LEGACY OF LEAKS

The gas storage industry, now 90 years old, has experienced lots of gas migration problems and its facilities “can create a serious risk of explosions and risks especially when located in urban settings,” say the petroleum experts who authored Gas Migration.

Leaks occur through faults, wells and cracks in cap rock. Operators admit that during the 50-year life of any operation, methane will leak and erupt into aquifers, soils and the atmosphere.

Decades ago, scientists compared storing methane underground (the gas is lighter than air) to building a room for a bunch of feral cats all trying to escape.

The following incidents illustrate that the Aliso Canyon disaster represents just one of the hazards of injecting and storing gases underground.

Moss Bluff, Texas, 2004: An explosion at this facility north of Houston lit up the sky with 200-foot flames and damaged a wellhead. As a result, the facility released nearly $30-million worth of methane into the atmosphere. More than 100 local residents were evacuated.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Doctors Sound Alarm as State of Emergency Declared over CA Gas Leak: Leave Now

January 8, 2016

Doctors Sound Alarm as State of Emergency Declared over CA Gas Leak: Leave Now

“I will tell you, this goes well beyond Porter Ranch. We’ve had complaints from as far as Chatsworth, Northridge, and Granada Hills,” emphasized Los Angeles City Councilman Mitchell Englander during a Porter Ranch town hall meeting on December 28. “Apparently this plume of toxic chemicals and whatever it might be, doesn’t know zip codes […] This is the equivalent of the BP oil spill on land, in a populated community.”

Aliso Canyon sits less than two and a half miles from Porter Ranch and less than 30 miles from the city of Los Angeles — the second most populous city in the United States — whose outlying total statistical area includes nearly 18 million residents, as of 2013.

Brown has been widely criticized for lack of decisive action on the leak, which is erupting from its underground storage area with all the force “of a volcano.” Under Wednesday’s declaration, “all state agencies will utilize state personnel, equipment, and facilities to ensure a continuous and thorough state response to this incident.”

Porter Ranch residents have been evacuating the area for some time, though SoCalGas’ rather maladroit handling of the relocation procedure has been a nightmare — and the cause for a mounting number of lawsuits, including one from the L.A. city attorney’s office.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

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