By Canadian Press

Utility to pay $8.5 million to settle suit over gas blowout

Feb 8, 2017 | 12:30 PM

LOS ANGELES — The Southern California Gas Co. agreed Wednesday to pay $8.5 million to settle a lawsuit over a well blowout that spewed natural gas for nearly four months and drove thousands of residents from their Los Angeles homes.

The utility signed an agreement with the South Coast Air Quality Management District to fund a study about health impacts from the leak, which San Fernando Valley residents have blamed for headaches, nausea, nosebleeds, rashes and other ailments.

AQMD had ordered the utility to fund the study when it issued an order to abate the public nuisance created by the foul-smelling odour that led to hundreds of complaints from residents. It also sued the utility.

“We are pleased to have worked with AQMD to settle this and other matters,” the utility said in a statement.

The leak was discovered in October 2015 in one of 115 underground wells in the immense Aliso Canyon gas storage facility. Before the well was capped in February 2016, the well had produced the largest-known release of climate-changing methane in U.S. history.

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Some 8,000 families in and around the Porter Ranch neighbourhood fled their homes because of health concerns.

The entire storage field has stopped receiving new gas supplies, but state regulators are looking into reopening it. Less than a third of the wells have passed rigorous inspections ordered after the blowout. The remaining ones have been taken out of service and must pass state-mandated tests within a year or be permanently sealed.

Homeowners want the storage field closed permanently, and they have angrily offered that view at recent public meetings.

A hearing was scheduled for Thursday before a state Senate committee on SB57, a bill that would block reopening the facility until state regulators complete an investigation to determine what caused the well leak.

Under the settlement, Southern California Gas will provide $1 million for the health study, $5.65 million to pay for emission fees related to the leak, $1.6 million to reimburse the regulatory agency for air monitoring costs, and $250,000 for the AQMD’s legal fees.

The Associated Press

by Canadian Press

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Utility to pay $8.5 million to settle suit over gas blowout

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