Leaking methane wellhead may explode in total blowout

[Liberty Belle]

Leak at So Cal Gas facility exposes nationwide problem of aging gas infrastructure at hundreds of sites

January 17, 2016 (Los Angeles)—The news sounds like the plot of a disaster thriller movie, but it’s real. The worst environmental disaster since the BP oil spill, a methane gas leak that began Oct. 23 at a storage well in Aliso Canyon in northern Los Angeles has pumped over 85,000 metric tons of methane into the air and forced thousands to relocate. According to the Environmental Defense Fund, each day of the leak spews as much climate pollutant into the air as 4.5 million to 9 million cars.

The leak at the site operated by Southern California Gas (a Sempra Energy company that also supplies San Diego’s gas) is endangering health and safety of residents as well as contaminating the environment and pumping a powerful climate pollutant into the atmosphere. But it may soon get a lot worse.

A Los Angeles Times investigation reveals that efforts to plug the leak by drilling relief wells has been halted—after a backwash from those efforts caused a crater 80 feet long, 30 feet wide and 25 feet deep, leaving the wellhead itself exposed and now at risk of a catastrophic blowout. Access to control valves are cut off, documents revealed. Should a massive explosion and fire occur with a 10-mile-long plume of methane over suburban neighborhoods, the scenario would be horrifying.

“It’s a mega-leak,” one of the biggest ever recorded,” Timothy O’Conner, oil and gas director for the Environmental Defense Fund in California has stated. “The plume is about 1,000 feet high and several miles long.” Methane has 94 times more climate warming power than carbon dioxide, and EDF has warned that even a small methane leak “greatly accelerates the rate of climactic change.”

Full story: http://eastcountymagazine.org/massive-methane-leak-forced-thousands-evacuate-gas-now-spread-across-san-fernando-valley-wellhead

[flamingdem]

1. Yikes! Maybe it's time to leave Socal on a vacay

[403Forbidden]

50. Once the fireballs start raining down from the heavens, expect the religious nutters to say..

...that is God's punishment for sinful Californians,.

[valerief]

51. We can count on that like we can count on climate change to keep heating

up the Earth.

[Duppers]

2. Terribly dangerous!

Link, please.

[pinboy3niner]

3. Here...

http://eastcountymagazine.org/massive-methane-leak-forced-thousands-evacuate-gas-now-spread-across-san-fernando-valley-wellhead

[Duppers]

9. Thanks.

[kristopher]

19. That source is not generally credible.

The leak is a very bad one but I'd want independent confirmation of anything that sourced to that rag.

[pinboy3niner]

20. L.A. Times: Explosion risk stalls plan to capture and burn gas from Porter Ranch leak

http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-gas-leak-continues-as-regulators-argue-over-safest-way-to-stop-it-20160116-story.html

Regulators fear attempts to burn off leaking gas near Porter Ranch could lead to explosion
http://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-porter-ranch-site-20160116-story.html#nt=storygallery

Efforts to plug Porter Ranch-area gas leak worsened blowout risk, regulators say
http://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-aliso-well-hole-20160115-story.html

[kristopher]

21. That kind of confirmation is what is required.

It has generated some junk that would make your head spin.

[petronius]

63. Reading those links and others, I get the sense that the explosion risk is not to

the nearby neighborhoods--it's not a question of a multi-kilometer-long fireball and homes blown up--but rather it's a risk of destroying the well-head and its associated equipment (and workers) and thus accelerating the leak.

As viewed on GoogleMaps the site is pretty big, with a lot of pads, but it seems like even the closest are ~0.5 miles away from the nearest houses...

[pinboy3niner]

66. I had a similar impression (see #49)

The greatest danger of explosion is in the area of the leak, and the ban on cell phones and watches is likely for workers there and anyone else visiting the site. If there were a high risk of explosion involving the entire plume we'd already have seen evacuation ordered for a much larger area. Still, with the huge volume of gas spewing from the leak there is potential for a pretty big explosion.

I gtew up just 5 miles Southeast of the leak, but that was well before Porter Ranch was developed.

[Liberty Belle]

23. The "rag" has won 88 journalism awards and the sources are all linked to.

Apparently you did not bother to actually read the story.

The sources include the Los Angeles Times and other major media, the Environmental Defense Fund, and Amy Goodman's Democracy Now radio program, to name a few.

[kristopher]

37. Riiiiight...

It produces a lot of junk, no matter the fact that it can also copy good reporting.

[Liberty Belle]

57. The awards won were for original reporting, mostly investigative stories

and many of them resulted in positive changes. For instance one story involved pulling voluminous public records and making calls to numerous area fire stations and proved that many were closed during fire season, some for weeks on end. The public officials reacted with emergency money to open them up. The story took weeks of research and a lot of money out of our own pockets to get all those records and visit sites all over the rural region.

We investigated the lack of services for veterans in the rural part of our county and that resulted in supervisors bringing veterans service to rural libraries.

We revealed that a council candidate running on a platform of "elect an honest accountant" had multiple fines for campaign violations. We also drove to another county to get court records to prove that a mayoral candidate was being sued for keeping ill-gotten gain after her hubby was convicted of stealing $5 million from old people. No other media did more than puff piece interviews with her.

We exposed that Supervisors had appointed a "red tape" reduction task force comprised of developers who proposed eliminating all community planning groups countywide as "red tape." That resulted in a huge crowd of angry folks and the supervisors, who had the votes, backed down.

I could list many more. Yes there are some stories that are re-reporting as in this one, where we only talked to a couple of original sources such as the pilot. Even if we don't break a story first, we don't ignore it like the mainstream media-- we tell our readers the truth to the best of our knowledge. This may be "re-reporting" but even that took several hours of research and fact-checking.

That said, we have broken many stories through the years and a lot of those did rise to the highest standards of journalism according to the major professional journalism associations including Society of Professional Journalists and our local press club. The awards include not just many 1st place honors by category, but also overall awards chosen by our peers in journalism for community reporting that makes a positive difference. We also won a League of Women Voters award for the planning group story.

You don't have to agree with our coverage on every piece or issue, and we're certainly not perfect. But to claim we merely "copy good reporting" is an untrue statement. I don't want to waste further space here, but if anyone wishes to see proof of some award winning investigative stories, I will be happy to post some links to the stories and the journalism groups that presented the awards.

[kristopher]

58. All I know is you've posted a lot of sensationalist garbage on DU.

Take for example, your attempt to connect this story with the Siberian craters of unknown origin. There is speculation about causes, but the nature of those craters has not been established. That doesn't take long to establish, but here you are using your poorly researched assumption to try as an aid in scaring people.

[jwirr]

35. Gas of any kind is explosive. Once was driving by a house

that suddenly went "poof" as the roof suddenly lifted up for about a foot and then gently settled back down and the whole house burst into flames. And don't forget most mine explosions are caused by methane gas.

As to those old pipelines. I would assume that in California where there are a lot of faults and earthquakes the pipes might be in worse condition than say in Nebraska. But here in MN we have had pipes explode in the past so they should all be checked. The community I live in almost exclusively uses gas for both businesses and homes.

[kristopher]

40. Yes, I know.

I've been following this debacle for quite some time now because of its climate implications.

[Liberty Belle]

4. Added link, sorry, got deleted in an edit.

There's a lot more to the story.

[Duppers]

8. Thank you!

[cui bono]

5. I had on local news after the debate and one story said no one was to use their fireplaces

until after a certain time due to pollution. Now, I thought our pollution had improved, I know it did during the 80's-90's, so I was surprised hearing this.

Now hearing that a spark could ignite this it seems that edict should be for a geographical area due to that leak. I hope they are telling people who live out that way not to have fires going. I was looking for a graph showing what they thought the area affected would be in the event of an explosion but didn't see one.

.

[pinboy3niner]

7. The 'no burn' alert is because the entire area is under a low stagnant air mass

The low-level temperature inversion traps smoke particles close to the ground. The alert covers all of the greater L.A. area plus other southland counties until midnight Sunday, which will be the fifth day in a row.

[cui bono]

10. Oh, I may have missed the "Sunday" part and thought it was just a time of day thing.

Thanks for the info!

.

[pinboy3niner]

11. You're welcome. I absorbed this stuff from all the repetition on local news these past days. :)

[Liberty Belle]

24. I've been trying to find that out, too.

If I can find the answer from a credible source, I will post it.

So Cal Gas isn't talking and so far no other media seems to have got any source on record.

I have asked a source who writes about energy issues for help to try and find an expert who could tell us how far away is safe.

[cui bono]

38. Yeah, would love to know.

Emailed someone I know who lives in Granada Hills and he said he doesn't smell the gas but that one day he went shopping in Porter Ranch area and that it was very smelly.

.

[tblue37]

34. What about people lighting cigarettes--or tossing burning butts? How hair-trigger is the risk? nt

[cui bono]

39. I was wondering that myself.

And why do they have a cut off date if they don't know how to contain it?

.

[pinboy3niner]

49. Near the leak they are not allowing cell phones or watches

The stories I've seen don't clearly define this area but my impression is that it's highly localized at the leak source where the plume is closest to the ground.

Efforts to find and fix the leak by pumping slurry at high pressure have caused more damage and increased the risk. Increased air there may have created a more dangerous fuel/air mix at the leak source. And the proposal to burn off the methane was put on hold because a motor that would be used isn't spark-prooof and might itself provide a source of ignition, and state regulators want more information and assurances.

[abelenkpe]

6. Not. Good.

[LuvNewcastle]

12. If I lived around there,

I would be trying like hell to get out!

[nilram]

13. Right. Pack everything up, and make sure the insurance is paid.

But not necessarily in that order.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

14. I wonder if CNN is setting up cameras to record the disaster in all it's glory.

[passiveporcupine]

15. oh fuck a duck

How can we be so careless and so stupid? Yellowstone, take me now.

[ChisolmTrailDem]

59. This is epic shit right here. As far as I'm concerned, mostly because I've not seen this expressed,

...this is environmental disaster equal to the scale of BP's screw up in the Gulf. And yet little coverage. Which is strange considering the Sensationalism & Propaganda Industry's usual hard-on for this sort of thing.

[passiveporcupine]

60. Maybe it's because so many lives might be threatened by this

they don't want to cause a panic. ???

[pinboy3niner]

61. The coverage has been the most intense locally (though it also has had national media coverage)

If you go to any L.A. Times story on it, the story will also have a link to full LAT coverage--a 6-page listing of all LAT stories on it dating back to October.

[pinboy3niner]

62. News teaser just now: Major announcement from the utility that could affect thousands in leak area

Last edited Tue Jan 19, 2016, 04:01 AM - Edit history (1)

Coming up on CBS2 News L.A. at 11 with livestreaming here: http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/category/news/

ETA: SoCal Gas Expects To Stop Aliso Canyon Leak By Late February (excerpt at Post 64, below)
http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2016/01/18/socal-gas-expects-to-stop-aliso-canyon-leak-by-late-february/

[Duckfan]

16. Wish I could pick up KNX1070

Was kinda my news source for So-Cal stuff. Can't get it now.

[403Forbidden]

31. You can live stream their broadcast from their website

http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/station/knx-1070/

[cui bono]

44. Or you can use TuneIn on a phone, tablet or computer.

They should have it. I listen to a Chicago station in the morning when I'm looking for something lighter than KPFK and I do it on my phone using TuneIn.

Yup, here it is:
http://tunein.com/radio/KNX-1070-News-p52616/

.

[Kablooie]

17. I know people who live there.

They've had to move to a temporary house the gas company pays for.

It's not far from California University Northridge where my son is going to school.
If it gets worse I wonder if it will affect them?

[SleeplessinSoCal]

18. and there's an odd "No Burn" order going on.

http://mynewsla.com/weather/2016/01/17/smog-worries-keep-southland-under-no-burn-order-for-5th-day/

I've never heard of this kind of order for anything but fire concerns. "Smog worries" sounds fishy.

This is seriously scary stuff. And so far there has been a virtual news backout, with the exception of talking to people in the immediate neighborhood.

[cui bono]

45. Yeah, that's what I wondered about upthread.

Heard about this on the local news after the debate and they said it was due to smog.

This is a curious sentence from your link:

"Fine particles in wood smoke can penetrate deep into lungs, causing problems for people with asthma or other respiratory disorders."

So... why are they only concerned about these particles now all of a sudden? Funnily enough, I was listening to an interview with a woman who wrote a book, I believe, about the whole BP fiasco and she was saying how much the public was kept in the dark about what was going on. By both BP and the Obama admin. It's definitely happening with this as well.

.

[SleeplessinSoCal]

46. the pragmatic side of me says the problems started many decades ago.

BP oil disaster is very similar to this methane issue. So long as everything that can be done now is being done I don't fault those trying to lessen fears.

And the Obama administration is actually paving the road to alternative energy sources l, which is about all they can do.

[cui bono]

53. I believe the public has a right to know what it going on when it affects their lives and livelihood

Imo, inn neither scenario have officials who have the information shown any concern about the people whose lives this is affecting.

And no, the Obama administration could do a lot more than that, but I don't want to get into an argument about it. It's all been hashed out before.

.

[SleeplessinSoCal]

56. that's where pragmatism comes in for me. n/t

[Duppers]

22. LA county supervisor called the leak a mini-Chernobyl.

Last edited Mon Jan 18, 2016, 08:19 AM - Edit history (1)

According to the article.

This gas field is the largest west of the Mississippi. Think what could happen if it were to explode!!
Unimaginable.





And the GOP wants to ditch the EPA. Idiots.


Edited to correct phone's dang autocorrect.

[Liberty Belle]

26. source on that citation:

http://patch.com/california/northridge/hundreds-pack-hearing-gas-leak-remediation

[Liberty Belle]

25. Pics of methane craters from explosions in Siberia:

Underground methane leaks from permafrost melting, but gives an idea how volatile it is -- these are 100 foot wide craters suddenly appearing: http://www.commondreams.org/news/2015/02/27/methane-explosion-craters-could-be-latest-indicators-warming-planet

[riversedge]

27. k and r.

[Liberty Belle]

28. Sempra ratepayers are apt to get stuck with this bill, given how they handled the wildfires:

Here's a little history of how Sempra and another of its companies, SDG&E, worked to stick survivors of wildfires caused by Sempra with the bill for Sempra's losses not covered by its insurance. Sempra's lines caused some of the worst fires in the state's history, the Public Utilities Commission concluded:

http://www.eastcountymagazine.org/supervisor-jacob-asks-cpuc-oppose-sdge%E2%80%99s-wildfire-cost-recovery-scheme
http://www.eastcountymagazine.org/cpuc-accused-violating-brown-act-and-due-process-failed-notify-parties-new-proposal-meeting-tomrrow
http://www.eastcountymagazine.org/sdge-wants-ratepayers-pay-90-its-remaining-wildfire-lawsuits-costs

Note to San Diegans who are already paying the highest utility bills in the nation -- better empty out your wallets, they're going to go up a whole lot more. Oh and for taxpayers in CA? Since the Gov. has declared this a state disaster, you'll get to pay for some of it, too. And maybe ultimately the feds, if it gets declared a federal disaster area.

Oh, and Sempra's stock has been going down since all this hit the fan.

[underpants]

29. This has gotten almost no national coverage that I am aware of

Last edited Mon Jan 18, 2016, 02:17 PM - Edit history (1)

I don't watch "the news" much any more so I usually just peruse headlines in a couple of websites. This story is being completely ignored.

[ChisolmTrailDem]

30. "This story is bring completely ignored." ... which gives you a clue as to how bad it...

...actually is.

Real bad.

[underpants]

41. +

I know you weren't commenting on it but I corrected the autocorrect bring to being. Thanks.

[dgibby]

54. Not completely.

Rachael Maddow is covering it. Stuff like this starts with her, then gets picked up after she shines a light on it., but it definitely should be National News, just like Flint, Mi.

[kristopher]

42. No, it isn't.

It has been receiving a pretty fair amount of coverage for months. Unfortunately most people don't pay attention to environmental or energy news.

[MineralMan]

32. The stoichiometric air-to-fuel ratio for methane,

by volume, is 9:52 to 1. That's the ideal mixture for complete combustion. With a major leak of methane from a ground source, the plume will eventually be diluted to that ratio, or near it, at some location. If there is an ignition source nearby the plume as it is diluted to around 10 parts of air to 1 part of methane, it will ignite and burn. That could be an explosive event, if enough volume exists at or near the ideal mixture.

No doubt that plume in California is being studied closely. Fire in the sky is a distinct possibility. All it will take is an ignition source at any point where the air to fuel ratio is right. The results will be dramatic if an ignition event does occur.

[Orrex]

33. Question from someone who knows nothing about this:

Aside from the whole exploding thing, how great a danger is this methane to people on the ground simply for breathing-related reasons? Every so often you hear about someone who dies after climbing into a well that he dug, only to be overcome by methane accumulated in the pit.

Is that a concern here, or does it dissipate too widely in the atmosphere for it to be a factor?

[flamingdem]

36. The authorities are denying health risks but many who are "senstive" have had to leave

the area. Those that stay are doing things like staying indoors and filtering their air. Yeech.

[Orrex]

47. Thanks.

I wasn't sure how to explore the question other than asking it here.


I'm sure that the authorities would tell us if there were a danger and would never cover up the potential risk...

[dgibby]

55. SURE they will! Just like they

jumped right on the lead levels in the water in Flint. Oh, wait.......

[Takket]

43. Why am i only just hearing about this now on DU???

Where is the MSM coverage??? This is a HUGE deal!

[Vinca]

48. They'll be on it when the neighborhoods are leveled.

[KamaAina]

52. We're dangerously close to San Bruno Release 2.0

[passiveporcupine]

65. Except a hell of a lot bigger! nt

[pinboy3niner]

64. SoCal Gas Expects To Stop Aliso Canyon Leak By Late February

January 18, 2016 7:37 PM

PORTER RANCH (CBSLA.com) — Southern California Gas Co. announced Monday that it expects to stop the leak at its Aliso Canyon storage facility by late February, if not sooner, as the utility says work on its relief well project is moving forward ahead of schedule.

The relief well drilling began Dec. 4 and is expected to reach the bottom of the well at a depth of about 8,500 feet below the surface next month, according to Jimmie Cho, senior vice president of gas operations and system integrity for SoCalGas. Once the well is sealed, it will be taken out of service permanently, Cho said.

...

Still, concerned residents and activists said they were not prepared to take the utility’s timeline at face value.

“All of their updates have been the ‘official updates,'” said Save Porter Ranch activist Matt Pakucko. “What has come true? Nothing.”

...

SoCal Gas says that gas emissions have also dropped 60 percent since the peak several weeks ago.

VIDEO report at link:

http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2016/01/18/socal-gas-expects-to-stop-aliso-canyon-leak-by-late-february/