Los Angeles in state of emergency after underground methane leak makes HUNDREDS ill
A STATE of emergency has been declared in Los Angeles after hundreds of residents became sick due to an underground methane leak that has been occurring for more than two months.
Express.co.uk
Thu, Jan 7, 2016
Governor Jerry Brown today declared the state of emergency and called for alternatives to stop the underground leak if existing efforts fail.
Southern California Gas Co, which operates the well that is the site of the underground methane leak, is trying to stop it by drilling a relief well to reach a damaged pipeline, then injecting fluids and heavy mud into it.
The governor’s office said in a statement the utility will need to identify how it will stop the leak if a relief well fails to seal it – or if the existing leak worsens.
The leak was discovered on Oct. 23 at a well used for natural gas storage in Aliso Canyon just outside Los Angeles’ Porter Ranch neighborhood, which is home to more than 30,000 people.
Thousands of residents were forced to move over the holidays, with the company underwriting their temporary housing.
Officials from Southern California Gas, a division of Sempra Energy, say they expect to stop the leak in late February to late March.
The leak, which state officials have said accounted at its peak for a fourth of California’s 20 million metric tons a year in greenhouse gas emissions from methane, is believed to have been caused by a broken injection-well pipe several hundred feet beneath the surface of the 3,600-acre (1,457-hectare) field.
Nearby residents have complained of such ailments as headaches, nausea and respiratory irritation from mercaptans, the odorants added to natural gas, according to Los Angeles County health officials.
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