Governor Declares Emergency Over Los Angeles Gas Leak
By IAN LOVETT
NYTimes.com
JAN. 6, 2016
LOS ANGELES — Natural gas has been spewing into the air in the Porter Ranch neighborhood here since late October, sickening residents, prompting thousands to evacuate their homes and pouring greenhouse gas into the atmosphere.
Gov. Jerry Brown, faced with mounting public anger and no end in sight to the leak, declared a state of emergency on Wednesday for the neighborhood of about 30,000 at the edge of the San Fernando Valley. And residents — who have been demanding to know why the Southern California Gas Company cannot fix the leak to its natural gas storage well, and whether the company will compensate them for their lost property values and health problems — want to know why it has taken so long.
“This is the equivalent of the BP oil spill, except it’s on land, in a populated community,” said Mitchell Englander, the Los Angeles city councilman who represents Porter Ranch. “This is one of the most disruptive, catastrophic environmental events that I’ve seen. It’s a truly chaotic crisis.”
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