Doctors Urge California Residents "Leave Now...While You Can" As Gas Leak Fears Grow
Submitted by Claire Bernish via TheAntiMedia.org,
California Governor Jerry Brown finally declared a state of emergency on Wednesday, concerning the ongoing, currently unstoppable methane gas leak spewing from Aliso Canyon that has created a nightmare for residents of Porter Ranch.
“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.
Los Angeles City Attorney Mike Feuer filed a civil lawsuit last month concerning the massive methane leak’s impact on area residents’ health and damage to the environment — which alleged failure by SoCalGas to prevent the leak and further exacerbation of “the effects of that failure by allowing acute odor and health problems faced by the community to persist for more than a month, to say nothing about the indefinite time it will persist into the future.”
Pediatrician Dr. Richard Kang gave an ominous warning during the Porter Ranch meeting, saying, “Unfortunately, the only real way to get away from the symptoms is… you have to relocate — you have to get away from the environment.” Health complaints include severe headaches, nosebleeds, respiratory issues including increasing cases of asthma, and a number of other issues.
SoCalGas, in the meantime, stated they were “providing air filters for people’s homes,” but though “the odor added to the leaking gas can cause symptoms for some, the gas is not toxic and county health officials have said the leak does not pose a long-term health risk.”
But, as the Los Angeles Daily News reported on December 25, “Los Angeles County health officials said prolonged exposure to trace chemicals, some of which are known carcinogens, can cause long-term health effects.” Nevertheless, they also “cautioned that levels examined so far here are not believed to be associated with long-term health problems.”
“The gas company says, ‘This is just the smell you’re reacting to, it’s just temporary, it’s not a problem, it’s not serious’ — these people aren’t stupid,” said attorney Rex Paris. “How could somebody possibly say that? We have children whose noses are bleeding every day, we have people who suffer from chronic headaches [and] are nauseous every, single day. How does that not become a serious issue? Why are they saying something nobody here believes? […] They’re trying to convince everybody that it’s all in our heads. It’s a trick.”
In fact, as Erin Brockovich pointed out, “no one really knows the long-term side effects of benzene and radon, the carcinogens that are commonly found in natural gas.”
Additionally, area house pets seem particularly vulnerable — possibly acting the part of unwitting canaries — as veterinarian Dr. David Smith described in the town hall meeting. Noting he has seen dozens of sickened animals, Smith said, “I’ve seen dogs, cats, birds, pocket pets… the primary symptoms I’ve seen are gastrointestinal vomiting […]These are not things you should be inhaling.” He added, “We have seen dermatological issues as well, some very unusual bacterial infections in dogs,” including one case in which a dog had such an infection on its face, and “the client developed almost the exact same kind of symptoms soon after that […] their physician thinks it’s related [to exposure from the gas leak] and so I tend to think these correlations are real.”
Though the declaration of emergency states “the Division of Oil, Gas, and Geothermal Resources shall continue its prohibition against Southern California Gas Company injecting any gas into the Aliso Canyon Storage Facility,” it does not make that moratorium dependent on stoppage of the leak; rather, only “until a comprehensive review, utilizing independent experts […] is completed.”
Physician Dr. Brooks Michaels, addressing the town hall meeting, gave the sternest advice to those still in the area surrounding the unprecedented leak:
“If you have a chance to leave, if you’re able to leave… if you have a chance to relocate, do it now. I’m telling you, it’s really critical.”
Understandably, Brown’s state of emergency seems almost too little, too late for many.
You can watch the Porter Ranch town hall meeting here:
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LOL, yep pretty much sums it up. At least they have safe spaces to crawl into when the going gets tough. Every time is see a CA plate I die inside a little more. It's like a biblical plague that you can't escape. Saw a cool bumper sticker on a TX car - "Don't California my Texas." We are catching on.
Somebody looking for a fire sale on land.
Soros is almost ready... But not yet. Fire season is coming
Dear God,
One lightning strike please.
Thank you,
Arizona Bay
Some say the end is near...
Mom's gonna fix it all soon.
Funny, that moron from Tool lives in CA. I guess he'll get his wish.
This will have the AGW crowd pulling their skirts over their heads, screeching and filling their pants.
okay how much global warming can we expect from this? /sarcasm
Cali's crap and tax scheme is only supposed to reduce greenhouse gasses ...lol
http://www.sacbee.com/opinion/op-ed/soapbox/article19360350.html
Move along, nothing to see here. Please don't light any matches though.
Would a flare be O.K.?
How about a flare gun?
It's just a matter of time.
storing natty in an earthquake zone. brilliant!
So are you saying this was done by the Japanese to pay us back for Hiroshima?
Where is the terrorist with a flaming arrow?
A remote launched Estes rocket would do the trick.
Cheaper than the drone/sparkler combo I mentioned earlier.
Good thinking. I just hope there will be plenty of cams viewing the ingition when it happens. And you know it will. There's probably a SoCal jihadist walking into the hobby shop right now...
Wait until a TV station flies an electric camera drone through the gas plume. Film at eleven.
Really, can't you tell from the video, its all going east.....just relax if your 50 yards west. This is totally organic and healthy.
Santa Anna winds blow east to west.
Some folks,
Yes it is, and showing brilliantly in sunrise and sunsets here on the coast.
We're talking curbside $20 airbrush art colorization.
On the other side of the hill is Santa Clarita, population 200K or so. This area sits in a valley as well surrounded by hills.... This is gonna bite some people in the ass
I thought it was just Oprah just farting
BOOM!
why hasn't someone lit it on fire to burn it off?
they would rather wait for the right conditions and let it explode on its own
They said the matches were just too short...
they need a "pilot light" literally.
A cheap drone and a kiddie sparkler would do the trick.
Damned surprised it hasn't met a static spark yet.
All the drones are currently buzzing the M.E and Oregon.
On you go then.
<Gets some popcorn and settles down at a safe distance>
Someone REALLY wants that resource-rich land of California. California was what.....like the 3rd largest economy in the world?? We had wildfires. We have droughts. I have an early American history book that talks about Spaniards first settling California. Waterways were rerouted to bring in water to central California due to the droughts there. In the 1980s/90s, didn't the state govt pass laws to reroute the water back to the sea to save a fish, the smelt? And now, we have methane gas. Knowing how the federal govt seems to be pretty bad about forcing ranchers off resource-rich property around the country and knowing that our dollar is near collapse (and we are in some serious debt to foreign nations), it is not surprising to see all these happening in California. I'm not a conspiracy theorist but I do have a brain & have been watching all these changes closely for the past 8 years. Didn't Nixon pledge our resource-rich public lands to foreigners when he ended the gold standard in 1971? Didn't he make this pledge that if our dollar ever failed, the debt would be backed up by our resources?? Interesting times we're living in.
Yeah, but how does this effect staulks? ---s
Add: govt. will allow the disaster to evolve beyond company responsibility/liability. So "We the People" may support our corporations, once again.
Got Meth?
see the chart (specifically California) where the BLM hasnt taken over. says it all to me http://modernsurvivalblog.com/government-gone-wild/map-showing-stunning-...
When can I sign up with Dewy Screwum and Howe / Erin Brockovich for the class action suit?
They have been playing these ads nonstop on AM radio.
What a shame the way California has been destroyed. You have this gas volcano down south. Fukishima is all over the air and sea. The rains won't return til they stop pushing the Jet Stream away. Aluminum, barium and God knows what else is being sprayed over it. Is this what Agenda 21 looks like?
What no WH Press Live Feed to hear more useless Blah Blah Blah Speeches?
The gas leak didn't shoot up a school.
We need common-sense gas-control laws. #GasSense
Yeah you joke but it is true.
Something needs to keep human kind from donkey punching Gaia all the time.
their physician thinks it’s related
Or they were kissing thier dog?
Well, have they tried the ol' "PLEASE DO NOT WORRY" campaign that was so wildly succesful in rendering the deadly consequences of Fukushima null and void??
Too bad Jerry Brown can't force the leak to be vaccinated or take the leak's gun rights away. He'd be real decisive then.
^ THIS
you would think they could build a base around it and suck the gas into some kind of tank
otherwise perhaps it will blow up that part of CA into the ocean
mercaptan is added TO the nat gas home supply in aus,
the stink of it is intended to enable the gas leaks, if any, to be noticed before it kills
and it DOES stink and make you want to upchuck in trace amounts.
my pity is the pets and wild critters who cant get away from it
people have the option, they dont.
One lightning strike away from a real doooozeeee