Less than two years after a natural gas leak at the Southern California Gas Co. storage facility in Aliso Canyon prompted business closures and forced thousands of Valley residents to flee their homes, operations are up and running again. “We have met – and in many cases exceeded – the rigorous requirements of the state’s safety review,” Sempra Energy subsidiary SoCalGas said in a letter to stakeholders on Aug. 7. “Aliso Canyon is safe and it is time to resume injections.” The state maintains injections are necessary to ensure continued energy reliability to homes and businesses, but it has capped the amount of natural gas that can be stored at the site at a fraction of the field’s capacity. But some local businesses and residents remain unconvinced that the site is either needed or safe. They also worry that restarting operations at the field, however limited, is perilous in an earthquake-prone region that has not yet completely recovered from the October 2015 blowout. “From the standpoint of residents, (state regulators) are playing Russian roulette with this issue,” Issam Najm, president of the Porter Ranch Neighborhood Council, said. “The state says prepare for the ‘big one’ (earthquake). We have issue with the fact that we have 114 wells that have broken in the past and could break in a seismic event.” After petitions to stop the gas injections at the site were denied by two lower courts, Los Angeles County asked the California Supreme Court to review the decisions. At press time, the court had yet to make a decision. Lasting impact? Despite officials’ reassurance that Aliso Canyon is safe, businesses are still trying to assess the impact of the leak on consumers. Karen Lebens, chief executive and former membership director of the Chatsworth-Porter Ranch Chamber of Commerce, said that while chamber membership had fallen off during the years she spent away from the organization, it was impossible to know whether the leak was to blame. “There are always businesses coming in and out, so it’s hard to blame it on the gas leak,” Lebbens said. But for Barbara Packard, owner of Starter Set Preschool & Child Development Center in Porter Ranch, there is clear evidence of lasting effects. “The truth of the matter is, we’ve really been hurt. Enrollment was up substantially before all this,” she said. “People had to relocate, and they took their youngsters with them.” It appears that the housing market has recovered since the leak, with prices rising 5 percent year-over-year to a median of $825,000, according to real estate database Zillow Group. A major mixed-use development called The Vineyards broke ground in June. “I’m seeing a surge in new business, especially builders,” Lebens at the chamber said. She expects that more commercial proposals for the area will be approved in the coming months. Reliability question Ultimately, Najm wants the natural gas pipeline altered so that the region’s energy needs can be met without the use of Aliso Canyon. The Porter Ranch Neighborhood Council intends to draw up a timeline for closure of the facility. “We’re going to draw a roadmap to achieve reliability and close the facility. We think it’s a very reasonable proposal,” he said. But without the Aliso Canyon facility, the 11 million customers who rely on it for natural gas would risk blackouts in the event of extreme weather conditions or the failure of renewable power sources, SoCalGas said. The region has been fortunate to have experienced mild weather since the leak occurred, although the facility was required to withdraw from its natural gas stores during one particularly cold day in January, SoCalGas Vice President of Customer Solutions and Communications Lisa Alexander noted. “We do not operate our system on the basis of luck, and luck is really what has gotten us through the last two years,” she said. “The fact is that Aliso Canyon is necessary today – that’s why the state has mandated that we restart operations there.” The decision to resume operations at Aliso Canyon came after more than 18 months of assessments by the California Public Utilities Commission, the state Department of Conservation’s Division of Oil, Gas and Geothermal Resources and a trio of independent national laboratories. An investigation into the cause of the October 2015 blowout is ongoing, but roughly half of the site’s 114 wells have been approved for operation. About 60 others have undergone the first round of tests and have been isolated until the second phase has been completed, SoCalGas spokesman Chris Gilbride said. “The reason it takes time to conduct the tests is because it requires working over the well with a rig,” Gilbride explained. “There are only so many we can do at once.” Every well that has passed the tests has been outfitted with new steel tubing on its interior, a requirement of the state’s comprehensive safety review of the site. Gas will travel through the reinforced tubing rather than through the outer casing of the wall, the mechanism by which gas was previously taken from the well. “In effect, (all of the wells) are brand new, because the only way gas is going to flow is through the pipes just installed,” Gilbride said. “That outer casing where the leak occurred will only act as a second barrier of protection.” Each well also is being fitted with a real-time pressure monitor and will be subject to daily inspections by a SoCalGas operator, according to state files. Temperature tests and so-called “noise logs,” which monitor the sound of gas flowing in the reservoir to determine whether any has escaped, will be conducted every six months.
