Aliso Canyon's Historic Gas Leak Puts Sempra Energy In "Uncharted Regulatory Territory"
Sempra Energy may be entering uncharted regulatory and technical territory with the massive and uncontained Aliso Canyon gas leak, according to Bloomberg Intelligence, as the company and its regulators simply cannot find historical leaks of this magnitude. Sempra’s Southern California Gas Co. is drilling a relief well but has warned that capping the well could take two months which has prompted massive evacuations in the area, the instigation of a no-fly zone, and now Governor Brown's declaration of a state of emergency to protect residents.
Governor Brown's statement (excerpted here):
Given the prolonged and continuing duration of the Aliso Canyon gas leak and at the request of residents and local officials, Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr. today issued a proclamation that declares the situation an emergency and details the administration's ongoing efforts to help stop the leak. The order also directs further action to protect public health and safety, ensure accountability and strengthen oversight of gas storage facilities.
Earlier this week, Governor Brown met with Porter Ranch residents and toured the Aliso Canyon Natural Gas Storage Facility, including the site of the leak and one of the relief wells.
Today's proclamation builds on months of regulatory and oversight actions from seven state agencies mobilized to protect public health, oversee Southern California Gas Company's actions to stop the leak, track methane emissions, ensure worker safety, safeguard energy reliability and address any other problems stemming from the leak.
Sempra’s Southern California Gas Co. is drilling a relief well that it expects will stop the gas from escaping from the well located in the Aliso Canyon storage facility, the fourth-largest underground field in the U.S. The utility has said capping the well could take two months.
Through Dec. 31, Sempra has spent about $50 million on addressing the leak and environmental and community impacts, including the temporary relocation of residents, according to a regulatory filing Thursday. Sempra also said it has made seven unsuccessful attempts to plug the leak by pumping fluids down the well shaft and that it may face fines and penalties as a result of the incident.
However, as TheAntiMedia.org's Dave Smith reports, scientists and engineers are finding it difficult to contain the largest natural gas leak ever recorded – since late October, an estimated 73,000 tons of methane, a highly flammable gas 25 times more potent as a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide, has escaped from an energy facility in Aliso Canyon, California; and there is no immediate end in sight.
According to Anne Silva, spokesperson for the Southern California Gas Company or SoCalGas the company that owns the facility, since the base of the well sits 8,000 feet underground, efforts to stop the flow of gas by pumping fluids directly down the well have not yet been successful. Therefore, the company is now constructing a relief well that will connect to the leaking well.
In a letter to the community affected by the leak, which came after Governor Brown directed DOGGR and CPUC to launch investigations into the cause of the leak and whether any violations have taken place, CEO Dennis Arriola said:
“We are making good progress on drilling a relief well to stop the leak and are on schedule to complete it by late-February to late-March. The relief well will intercept the leaking well at more than 8,000 feet below ground and the operation is continuing around the clock, 24 hours, 7 days a week. As of December 19, we have drilled about 3,300 feet and are in our second of five phases of the drilling process. Once the relief well intercepts the leaking well, we will pump fluids and cement into the bottom of the well to stop the flow of gas and permanently seal it.”
The Environmental Defense Fund recently released footage of the leak that shows climate-damaging methane gases escaping from a massive natural gas leak at a storage facility in California’s Aliso Canyon, with the San Fernando Valley pictured in the background. The giant methane plumes were made visible by a specialized infrared camera operated by an Earthworks ITC-certified thermographer.
“What you can’t see is easy to ignore. That’s why communities that suffer from pollution from oil and gas development are often dismissed by industry and regulators. Making invisible pollution visible shows the world what people in Porter Ranch have been living with every day for months,”conservation organization Earthworks spokesman Alan Septoff said.
California officials have confirmed the rupture is venting gas at a rate of up to 110,000 pounds per hour – more than 150 million pounds of methane has been poured into the atmosphere so far; officials fear pollutants released in the accident could have long-term consequences far beyond the region. The counter below estimates in real time just how much pollution is being emitted from the environmental disaster.
The 20-year warming impact is said to exceed that of all the state’s oil refineries combined, or of burning 300 million gallons of gasoline. The EDF states:
Methane – the main component of natural gas – is a powerful short-term climate forcer, with over 80 times the warming power of carbon dioxide in the first 20 years after it is released. Methane is estimated to be leaking out of the Aliso Canyon site at a rate of about 62 million standard cubic feet, per day. That’s the same short-term greenhouse gas impact as the emissions from 7 million cars.
Tim O’Connor, the California climate director for the Environment Defense Fund, told Mashable the leak is dumping the equivalent of eight or nine coal plants worth of methane into the atmosphere. He told The Washington Post, “It’s one of the biggest leaks we’ve ever seen reported. It is coming out with force, in incredible volumes. And it is absolutely uncontained.”
NO FLY ZONE now issued around the methane leak zone in Los Angeles, California. https://t.co/dMjCyqYewY via @YouTube
— Lil' Joe (@craigdh) December 20, 2015
The Los Angeles Unified School District has agreed to relocate nearly 1,900 students from schools near the leak, citing disruption from absenteeism and several visits to the health office. SoCalGas has placed 2,258 families in temporary housing, while 111 others staying with family or friends are being compensated. More than 3,000 others are in the process of being relocated.
* * *
So far, 25 complaints, many of which seek class action status, compensatory and punitive damages and attorneys’ fees, have been filed, Sempra said. State and local authorities are investigating.
“Our focus remains on quickly and safely stopping the leak and minimizing the impact to our neighbors in Porter Ranch,” Dennis Arriola, president and chief executive officer of Southern California Gas, said in an e-mailed statement.
This week Brown met with Porter Ranch residents and toured the Aliso Canyon facility on the north rim of the San Fernando Valley. His office said the emergency regulations would include daily inspections of gas storage well heads and regular testing of safety equipment.
Brown’s emergency order "will bring the additional resources and focus we need — to get people back into their homes, restore confidence in the safety of this community, and begin rebuilding quality of life in the neighborhoods affected by the gas leak,” Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said in a statement. Garcetti said he asked Brown to make the declaration.
Brown also directed the California Public Utilities Commission, which regulates Sempra’s Southern California Gas, to ensure that the company covers costs related to the leak while protecting customers. The utility is paying to temporarily relocate residents.
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Sorry JB... Linda Ronstadt can't save your ass this time around
Methane is lighter than air (propane heavier), rises fast. How could it flow down a canyon into houses, then stay there as a hazard?
If it did, it would be concentrated enough to burn at the source, or would cause explosions near houses from cigarettes.
Might be like black-mold scare of early 2000's. Just noise for torts. Not one person ever died of that.
*this* is a job for IMAX
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AOz00Ego1cM
hugs,
the fires of kuwait
~"Sempra Energy may be entering uncharted regulatory and technical territory with the massive and uncontained Aliso Canyon gas leak,..."~
Why? Are they not in violation of Southern California Air Quality Board's regulations pertaining the release of hydrocarbons into the atmosphere? Then fine their asses into oblivion. Enforce the law. Hold them accountable.
Oh, wait. Gov. Moonbeam's sister is on the board of Sempra. Never mind, this gross polluter needs our "sympathy"; our "understanding"; "our compassion".
Oh, the hypocracy.
Mobilize a fleet of trucks and pour concrete on the bastard!
How hard is that?
I've dubbed this leak as the "Great Fart"..,methane thick and heavy in parts of that canyon, depending on winds.
From what I understand, they've tried, several times.
They have it all wrong.
Sempra needs to exchange Methane like Carbon Trading for Trees. The new unit of measure is the Bovine Fart Index (BFI) which measures the amount of methane expelled by a cow during its lifetime. All Sempra need do is kill a few million cows and get BFI credits and the problem will go away, just like a coal burning power plant that buys a few square miles of rain forest. The sheeple will be taxed severely, GS will make billions and the pollution will disappear... on paper. The air will be just as dirty but it won’t matter anymore.
Wonder why all of those petroleum engineers could not think of that?
Were you one of those who suggested sinking a battleship on top of the Macondo well in the GoM?
The gas flow will blow the concrete right back out the top.
The solution is to inject it at the bottom at a very high rate.
Concrete is very hard, but if the concrete was hard, they wouldn't be able to pour it.
Moonbeams sister receives $400K in stocks and $192,000 annual salary.
light it.
I was gonna say...I was wondering when someone was going to shoot a bottle rocket up into that plume.
I'm not a big fan of gov't intervention in anything but I'm baffled why the fucking gov't doesn't get involved when these disasters like Fukushima and this gas leak happen? The fucking asshats running these companies have already fucked up, what would give anyone confidence that the same folks who fucked it up would be able to fix it? Get a frickin emergency assessment team made up of top scientists with a list of all available assets to throw at the problem then make some decisions. Isn't the environmental damage potential important enough to the douchebags running our gov't?
The gov't reserves all its power for real problems, like when an Isis militia unit is taking a little bit of incoming flak from Assad's forces, then the gov't will wet its pants providing logisitcs, money, weaponry, air-support, whatever to help. You see, that's a real problem, not a part of the environment becoming as habitable as the surface of Venus.
It is because the government actually does not know how to do anything and I mean anything at all. Every single thing the government knows anything about was learned from people in the private sector, including safety information. Whether it is engineering, energy, medicine or synthetic CDO's, someone in the private sector invented it.
In the case of energy, drilling and this stuff it is multiple sciences plus good old trial and error. Over time, people have broken things, set things on fire, watched the failure of some idea, as people got injured or killed. There is no real way around it.
Stupid government religionists believe the government is there with some apriori knowledge of how to do things. Not only do they not know how, they do not have the equipment, multiple disciplines, trained teams or experience to do anything. I am not saying that some in government cannot offer helpful advice but all the raw basic knowledge comes from industry.
That is why they could not plug the well in the Gulf, nor this one.
However, Democrats will demagogue the issue to death about more rules, regulations and how they are needed...blah, blah, blah. The leftist sheep will all bleat and agree.
Stop letting a bunch of science interfere with this explosive narrative........
"Methane is lighter than air (propane heavier), rises fast. How could it flow down a canyon into houses, then stay there as a hazard?"
NatGas wells do not contain pure Methane, There is a significant amount of condensate whcih includes heavier hydrocarbons such as Propane, and even liquid hydrocarbons.
Hey Buddy, Do you have a spare match I can use?
I believe it is a storage facility and not a production well.
AGuy is correct. Also, there is considerable mixing....air is turbulent stuff, and constituents don't settle into clean layers like those multi-colored jello parfait treats. (otherwise, we'd have pure oxygen down here at the surface and all the nitrogen - the bulk of the atmosphere - layered higher up, with a smattering of CO2 and other stuff crawling along the ground).
No, Aguy is not correct.
This is an old oil well in a a depleted oil field now used for NG storage. The stored NG has already been stripped of the heavies before it was put into the pipe and sent to the storage field. I expect that the NG is escaping from around the old casing and leaking to the surface. If they light it to flare it they will not be able to approach the well again to put out the fire.
The methane gas is quickly diluted by the regular air and is harmless. The problem for the residents is the odor from the chemical added when the gas is shipped in the pipe to make lead detection possible from smell. If not for that there would not be a relocation problem.
So, selling dirty methane now, eh? Add some more to that fine...
Yeah....everybody thinks Natural Gas is "clean" energy. Kinda the same lie as "Clean coal technology"
It is "cleaner" in a relative sense. But it still contains a witch's brew of chemicals. You don't want it coming out uncontained if you live nearby a well.
The mercaptans (foul smelling chemicals added so as to help identify leaks) might be heavier than air.
Maybe serious poison in sufficient quantity...and any assumption should be that way round...
Watson
Bullshit! Those chemicals are as harmless as Roundup and Malathion......!!
yo Moonbeam ! ... how's that crap and tax scheme workin out for ya'll ??
Just inject a shit ton of Beano in there.
Go long Prestige Brands Holdings, Inc.... makers of Beano.
Nice follow-up Tylers.
Well done.
Leave it to a bunch of rogue traders, that work their asses off, to start making some " phone calls".
"Stay gassy Sempra Energy"
"Yes we can!"
if brine is good cement is better
Please, no Rachel Madcow.
Mrs. Mann
Dry>>> Heaves.
Brings back fond memories of the "love canal", same as it ever was.
Stupid sheep.
Quick! Somebody get Jan Schlichtmann & Erin Brockovich on the blower!
Quick! Somebody get Jan Schlichtmann & Erin Brockovich to blow me!!
can i get a light?
Was that schematic drawn by _ Retards -r-US?
Junk shot!
Yeah, that graphic is seriously stupidly wrong.
Recalling BP's DWH fiasco, they can't put anything down the hole against the flow. It will just fly back out. You can see in the video footage that there isn't any crane or equipment around the hole, they are staying away from it and hoping it remains unlit.
They'll finish the relief well in a few weeks, and pump some concrete down it.
Tylers, here is the relief-well graphic:
http://www.caloes.ca.gov/SiteCollectionImages/Phases%20of%20Stopping%20t...
It's just a link, because my picture-posting thingy seemed to be broken last time I tried it...
No one should worry; those 1,900 students will be relocated to Irvine and Laguna Niguel for schooling until the leak is fixed.
Your comment was brilliant. My Grandparents owned property west of 101, in Laguna.
8 or 9 Coal plants...or about 0.5% of China's Coal plants.
Will the EPA levy a fine equal to, or greater than the one they imposed on Tepco for Fuckushima?
Seriously though, I bet the 10% increase on electricity in California should partly go to cover that fine. . .
It sounds like you are you saying the Consumer should be held financially liable for this.......
Negative. I'm trying to point out how hypocritical the envirofreaks are while also laugh/crying at how the consumer ends up taking it all in the ass.
Carry on then.....
It sounds like you are you saying the Consumer should be held financially liable for this . . .
Maybe not "liable" but certainly the consumers will be footing the bill for this in one way or another. Thinking anything else is living in dreamland . . .
One good thunderstorm and a nearby strike....