Our View: Something rotten in state’s response to gas leak

The amount of methane gas escaping into the neighborhoods around the southern California town of Porter Ranch is downright frightening. The smell of rotten eggs permeats the air. Homes have been evacuated, classes have moved to far-away school buildings, there’s even a no-fly zone over the area.

That’s because 1,200 tons of methane is being released every single day from beneath Porter Ranch, a trendy planned community in the San Fernando Valley. The state estimates that’s the equivalent of adding 1 million cars to the highway for a year.

Noted attorney Erin Brockovich compared it to the 2010 BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

Put another way, we’ve heard about how much damage our region’s milk cows do to the environment with the methane they produce; the leak is the equivalent to grazing 6,000 cows in the trendy San Fernando Valley community. Then another 6,000 cows the next day and the next and so on.

This leak is the responsibility of Southern California Gas, a subsidiary of Sempra Energy, which has been storing methane in an old oil field. SoCal Gas officials said last weekend that they’re close to locating the source of the methane cloud that has been billowing since October. Close? After nearly three months?

The gas appears to be spewing from a 7-inch diameter well casing used to inject gas into rock formations that held crude oil until the 1940s. But as geologists know, whenever something is injected into the ground it pushes aside whatever else already filled that space. The increased pressure can cause collapse of the underlying geologic structures.

Because pinpointing the leak and pinching it off is complex and risky, the gas company says it won’t be able to stop the spewing until spring. Though the leak isn’t despoiling beaches or killing wildlife, the disaster continues to grow. That’s unacceptable.

In the face of such an environmental crisis, our ultra-green governor has been surprisingly quiet. Perhaps Gov. Jerry Brown hasn’t gotten close enough to sniff the methane in the air. Perhaps invisible gas isn’t as interesting as diesel exhaust. Perhaps he’s gotten assurances from his sister, who sits on the board of directors of Sempra Energy, that this was being taken care of.

Last week, Gov. Brown wrote a letter to SoCal Gas’s CEO, in which the governor stated the obvious – that the gas company has had an inadequate response to the Porter Ranch leak. Duh.

This isn’t merely a local issue. It’s clear the state lacks a plan for dealing with problems – potentially deadly problems – arising from natural gas or methane storage. Brown should be calling upon the legislature to review the rules, regulations and requirements for storing gasses underground. And he should be asking the companies responsible to pay for it. There’s more that could be done.

First, halt all production around this well and the dozens of others supplying gas to electrical power companies throughout southern California.

Second, push the California Air Resources Board and Department of Conservation’s Division of Oil, Gas & Geothermal Resources to toughen regulation of gas-injection wells. No such wells should be permitted until issues of “mass balance” – making sure what’s already there doesn’t interfere with what’s being injected – are addressed. A thorough understanding of unintended consequences, such as massive leaks, should be thoroughly understood.

Third, a more robust inspection regime – not under the authority of the Public Utilities Commission – must be installed. Remote sensing won’t stop such problems, but it would pinpoint their location so they could be fixed more rapidly.

Dealing with gas leaks in Porter Ranch isn’t as glamorous as going to Paris, but it will make us safer.

This story was originally published December 30, 2015 at 5:04 PM with the headline "Our View: Something rotten in state’s response to gas leak."