Effects of the California Gas Leak

On October 23 of last year, a natural gas leak began at a SoCal gas storage facility in Aliso Canyon in the suburbs of Los Angeles, California, and has since been emitting alarming amounts of methane gas into the atmosphere. This has caused problems both at a local level for the Porter Ranch community of San Fernando Valley, directly northwest of the facility, and also on a national and possibly global level.

The state of California has declared a state of emergency as attempts have been made to quickly rectify the failure. Thousands of residents of the upscale area have had to leave for health reasons, but the primary focus is on the long-term effects of the gas on the environment, especially with respect to climate change. Methane, the second-most prevalent greenhouse gas after carbon dioxide, has 80 times the insulating effect that the latter gas has, and can therefore be very dangerous on a global scale.

The Environmental Defense Fund now states that as of January, the amount of gas leaked is about equal to 2% of the methane emissions in the United States, annually. The average emission rate from the plant is just over 30,000 kilograms of the gas per hour, and the flow rate at its worst was about 85,000 cubic metres of the gas per hour, which has since gone down to about 45,000.

While the company has been ordered to cap the leak, it is not easily done. As a well that is connected to a gas reserve 2,500 metres underground, the failure point was difficult to pinpoint, but has been determined to be about 300 feet underground. Up until now, SoCal has been trying to use liquid and mud, poured into the well, in order to seal it. Evidently, these efforts have not succeeded. Another well to be used to seal and relieve the leaking one will be drilled, which will hopefully stop the flow.

The extent of the environmental effects of the leak will be determined at a later date. For now, the local effects are more obvious. Poor air quality has been an issue for residents, with air purifiers being provided for the time being. The government is also now developing new regulations for the control of oil and gas storage plants, in order to prevent more occurrences of this type.