Last fall, a 7-inch injection well pipe ruptured 500 feet below the surface of Los Angeles, after ferrying natural gas for six decades. The resulting methane leak is now being called one of the largest environmental disasters since the BP oil spill, has pushed thousands of people out of their homes, and has quickly become the single biggest contributor to climate change-causing greenhouse gas emissions in California. But it's not the first time this well sprang a leak—and Southern California Gas Company (SoCalGas), which owns and operates the well, knew it.
Over the past three months, engineers have had a terrifically difficult time plugging the leak. Normally in the case of a methane leak, a column of fluid would be pumped down into the well, to stem its tide. But with this particular well, that hasn’t been working. Instead, workers must drill down to the base of the well, 8,000 feet underground, creating a relief well to relieve the incredibly high pressure of the leak. Only then can the leak be repaired safely.
So who’s to blame for a leak that cannot be stopped? Aging natural gas equipment may have contributed. According to documents filed with the California Division of Oil, Gas & Geothermal Resources, this particular well, referred to as Standard Sesnon 25, was originally drilled in 1953, and showed signs of leakage 24 years ago, in 1992. Inspectors reported that they could hear the leak through borehole microphones.
Gene Nelson, a professor of physical science at Cuesta College in San Luis Obispo, California who has seen the document, said that he found it “appalling that SoCalGas did not identify this as a well to shut off,” after receiving this feedback.
There have been other problems documented at this facility before. And in 2014, inspectors at the wells documented corrosion and negative integrity trends.
In 2013, SoCalGas applied for and received money to do upgrades on equipment like safety valves—money that the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) says should have been used to prevent a leak like this. The regulatory decision filing shows that SoCalGas was granted $898,000 per year (in addition to the regular fund of about $3 million per year for repairs) to replace 5 percent of its safety valves at Aliso Canyon. According to EDF, these extra funds weren’t used as they should have been—to prevent a leak of this magnitude.
In 2014, written testimony to the California Public Utilities Commission by SoCalGas Director of Storage Operations Phillip Baker documented corrosion and negative integrity trends in the aging pipeline.
“Without a new inspection plan, SoCalGas and customers could experience major failures and service interruptions from potential hazards that currently remain undetected,” he wrote. The filing also noted that as of 2014, half of the company’s 229 storage wells were over 57 years old, and 52 wells were more than 70 years old.
“The company should be holding themselves to highest standard of care,” said Tim O’Connor, Director of California oil and gas for EDF, adding that SoCal should have had emergency plans in place to prevent long-term leaks from occurring. “This leak is a symptom of a larger issue—aging oil and gas infrastructure. We just don’t have a system to properly deal with storage leaks yet.”
Other safety issues have been pointed out recently, too. Earlier this month, The LA Times reported that attorneys representing some of the 1,000 residents suing SoCalGas over the leak claim the company failed to replace an important safety valve that was removed in 1979—a valve that could have stopped the current leak in its tracks. The plaintiffs also allege that the company again identified leaks at the site five years ago, but never implemented plans to fix them.
When pressed about the age of the pipes and the safety history of the well, a spokesperson for Sempra Utilities, the company that owns SoCalGas, said that the company performs daily well checks, and that this well had passed its last inspection:
Over time, the technology to monitor and operate underground gas storage field has developed steadily, and our facilities are at the forefront of safety controls and procedures. In addition, all our operations are closely monitored for compliance with the safety standards of the California Public Utilities Commission, the Division of Oil and Gas, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, and local fire departments.
Now, three months after the pipe first burst, Gov. Jerry Brown has proclaimed a state of emergency in California. The declaration grants the state more powers to oversee the response, gives more authority to health officials, forces the utility to maximize its gas withdrawals, and ramps up safety inspections at the Aliso Canyon Underground Storage Facility in Porter Ranch—a neighborhood of Los Angeles where over 100,000 pounds of methane are now being pumped into California’s air every hour. The proclamation will likely allow more funds to be diverted to assist in cleanup efforts, and creates an independent panel to assess what went wrong with the leak and to assess its impact on human health.
Leak site. Image: Earthworks
Dennis Arriola, president and CEO of the Southern California Gas Company, which owns the Aliso facility, issued a statement saying that the company “has been communicating with the Governor’s Office and other state agencies from the outset….[and] reaffirms our prior commitment to mitigate the environmental impact of the actual amount of natural gas released from the leak.”
Robert Howarth, a professor of ecology and environmental biology at Cornell University and an expert in the impacts of greenhouse gas emissions, called the Porter Ranch leak “spectacularly large,” adding that it is likely adding 5 percent to the total amount of methane leaked by the entire US oil and gas industry right now. (Natural gas consists primarily of methane, which constantly leaks, in much smaller amounts, from oil and gas fields around the nation.) What’s more, says Howarth, the methane is incredibly sticky—meaning, it’s going to stay in the atmosphere.
“Once the methane is in the air, it will be there for 10-plus years until it is chemically converted to carbon dioxide and methane,” said Howarth. “ We cannot do anything about that to speed its loss up. And during those 10-plus years, it is more than 100 times more potent as a greenhouse gas than is carbon dioxide.”
In other words, the methane coming out of this leak is catastrophically worse for the climate than the pollution we pump into the atmosphere from cars and planes and trains every day.
So far, some 2,300 homes have voluntarily evacuated and several schools have been closed, with many residents complaining of headaches and nosebleeds from the foul-smelling chemical additives. These include radon, hydrogen sulfide, and an odorant called mercaptan, which is added to the gas both before and after it leaves the storage field.
The well, which funnels natural gas to 22 million customers in the Los Angeles Basin, is expected to take another three months to plug. O’Connor says that the disaster is a telling sign about the viability of natural gas in a country of aging infrastructure.
“We need to take a hard look at whether we can prevent these types of leaks,” he said, adding that smaller methane leaks at oil and gas facilities happen frequently. “These problems fly below the radar until catastrophes happen—and a catastrophe has just happened.”
The story suggests that only methane is spewing from the well. However, a witches brew of other chemicals is also part of the spew, including crude oil, toluene, benzine and a lot of other nasty substances people downwind shouldn't be anywhere close to.
Well any money allocated for integrity analysis will be pissed away, funneled to cover other liabilities. And do you think SOCAL will take the liability of analysis risks on other lines? No way Jose, they will call in third party contractors whose contracts contain no liability on their part. So it will all be litigated, expect nat gas rates to rise exponentially out there.
Too many lawyers in energy business. We need good scientists, engineers and technicians with a moral compass.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2011/02/110223-nuclear-war-winte...
Earth is currently in a long-term warming trend. After a regional nuclear war, though, average global temperatures would drop by 2.25 degrees F (1.25 degrees C) for two to three years afterward, the models suggest.
At the extreme, the tropics, Europe, Asia, and Alaska would cool by 5.4 to 7.2 degrees F (3 to 4 degrees C), according to the models. Parts of the Arctic and Antarctic would actually warm a bit, due to shifted wind and ocean-circulation patterns, the researchers said.
After ten years, average global temperatures would still be 0.9 degree F (0.5 degree C) lower than before the nuclear war, the models predict.
For a time Earth would likely be a colder, hungrier planet.
"Our results suggest that agriculture could be severely impacted, especially in areas that are susceptible to late-spring and early-fall frosts," said Oman, of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.
"Examples similar to the crop failures and famines experienced following the Mount Tambora eruption in 1815 could be widespread and last several years," he added. That Indonesian volcano ushered in "the year without summer," a time of famines and unrest. (See pictures of the Mount Tambora eruption.)
All these changes would also alter circulation patterns in the tropical atmosphere, reducing precipitation by 10 percent globally for one to four years, the scientists said. Even after seven years, global average precipitation would be 5 percent lower than it was before the conflict, according to the model.
In addition, researcher Michael Mills, of the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Colorado, found large decreases in the protective ozone layer, leading to much more ultraviolet radiation reaching Earth's surface and harming the environment and people.
I just broke wind! Where and to whom do i report this?
Where is Red Adair when we really need him?
Hold on, can you just light it? I mean, you'd kill two birds with one stone if it blew California off the map, right?
But when 500,000 illegal immigrants in California have frijoles for breakfast, lunch and dinner each day and blast off a few pounds of methane by day's end, everything is fine.
Right?
This well has been leaking for decades because it matters not to the environment, unless of course big fat fucking gummamint gets to step in a create carbon taxes.
Keeping pumping boys.
FUCK YOU JERRY BROWN!!!
So the gas is stored there or is it where it originated? If it's stored how did it get there and how much is there? Can someone please top this off with a bit of an explanation? Thanks
As long as this don't impinge on the mooveeeeeeee industry 'cause Freddie's gonna get real upset.
This article doesn't mention that Governor Moonbeam's sister Kathy is on the Board of Directors for Sempra.
@WTFUD: there is no need to report your recent release of global warming gases; the NSA has been monitoring your asshole for some time now (since you began commenting on ZH), and they are already aware of your emission. It has aded two (2!!) black marks against your account, moving you up the list of 'provocateurs' who will be rounded up first when martial law is announced.
While this is a pretty significant emission source, it is truly a fart in a windstorm against the world balance of methane emissions. Vegetation, including plankton, which amounts to about half of the biomass on the planet, dies off and rots (scientific term for decomposition) at a rate of perhaps 15% of the total carbon tied up in plant tissue per year. Half of the animal mass is nematodes (microscopic worms that live in the soil), which also have a short life and decompose. Depending on conditions of decomposition, and contributions from anaerobic bacteria, emissions of methane can amount to perhaps one hundredth of a percent of the 200 gigatons of CO2 emitted annually. And this is only the current carbon cycle contribution; it does not include the thousands (millions?) of natural gas seeps which bubble up constantly, returning methane to the atmosphere which was formed by this decomposition process millions of years ago, and has been trapped underground since. There was a gas well that blew out the casing some years ago in the Gulf just east of Galveston, in about 100 feet of water. The churning water could be seen for miles, and on still days it created a draft into the well zone a mile across, as the gas rose. This well blew out a big hole in the ocean floor, and could not be (easily) capped, so 'they' just let it blow. Eventually it stopped being noticeable, although I doubt it has stopped leaking. Just sayin
I live near this, it's nothing compared to the air quality of Burbank or S East LA, seriously, shows what whores for trial lawyers our elected officials are.
100% of the time you can't smell, notice anything, when you do it's nothing compared to a diesel car.
Anybody claiming injury is probably a head case or liar or sick of something else.
Lyin' and stealin' rewarded once again. Bet the money went for ho's and blow. Damn disgusting.