By Ronnie Safarov @Care4Planet
It has been almost three months since the largest methane leak on record began at an underground storage facility at Aliso Canyon, California. In this time, nearly 86,000 tons of methane has escaped into the atmosphere. Three thousand families have since been evacuated from the area in northern Los Angeles and there is still no immediate end in sight to this ordeal.
The second largest leak of its kind in the United States, it was discovered on Oct. 23 by the storage facility’s owner, the Southern California Gas Company (SoCalGas). A few days later, residents of Porter Ranch, an affluent Los Angeles neighbourhood located in immediate proximity to the storage facility, started reporting a “rotten-egg smell,” as well as headaches, nausea, and nosebleeds.
The “rotten-egg smell” of methane occurs because of sulfide odorants, which are frequently added to odorless gasses for easier detection. Methane by itself is a colourless and odorless gas and is largely non-toxic. At high enough concentrations, however, methane and these odorants may cause suffocation, headaches, vomiting and other health issues. Due to the flammability of methane, explosions on site are also a risk.
On Oct. 26, SoCalGas notified LA City Councillor Mitchell Englander of what had at first been estimated “to be a small, routine gas leak.” According to the Guardian, the residents of Porter Ranch were not informed of the leak until December.
The first six attempts to plug the leaking well have failed and the seventh unsuccessful endeavor led to increased concerns regarding the stability of the wellhead. In this situation, any new attempt to plug it might lead to a blowout with truly disastrous consequences. The current plan is to drill a secondary relief well in order to fill the faulty well with cement but according to estimations, it may take until end of March 2016 before this strategy is fully executed.
Methane is a powerful greenhouse gas, approximately 21 times more potent, according to slate.com, than carbon dioxide, the carbon emission singled out foremost in climate talks.
Every day since October 2015, the leak has been releasing 1,200 tons of methane into the atmosphere, which is the emissions equivalent of putting another 4.5 million cars on the road or running six coal-plants in one day, according to estimations made by time.com. These numbers are especially striking in the context of the recently concluded UN Climate Change Conference in Paris, where the US pledged a 26-28 per cent decrease of emissions compared to 2005 over the next ten years, according to carbonbrief.org.
On Jan. 6, California Governor Jerry Brown issued a state of emergency in Porter Ranch. The LA County Supervisor Michael Antonovich called the situation “a mini-Chernobyl.” Meanwhile, the leak, which has already been called by some experts “the worst US environmental disaster since the BP oil spill in 2010,” shows no signs of stopping.
This article first appeared in the Leveller Vol. 8 No. 4 (Jan/Feb 2016).
