This Dec. 13, 2015 file photo shows Porter Ranch from above. Another gas leak was discovered Saturday, July 2, 2016, at the Aliso Canyon storage facility north of the suburban neighborhood. Photo by Gene Blevins/Special to the Los Angeles Daily News
By Gregory J. Wilcox, Los Angeles Daily News
Posted: 07/06/16, 9:11 AM PDT | Updated: 6 hrs ago
Another leak in the Southern California Gas Co. natural gas storage field above Porter Ranch was fixed shortly after it was discovered, officials said Wednesday. But it didn’t come without renewed demands to shut the facility down.
The leak was in a pipeline near a well called SS 10.
“On Saturday, during routine daily well inspections at the Aliso Canyon storage facility, SoCalGas personnel detected a minor, nonhazardous leak near one of the wells at the site,” SoCalGas spokeswoman Melissa Bailey said in a statement. “Company personnel ... determined the source of the gas to be a small leak from a nearby, buried 3-inch diameter pipeline not associated with the well’s operation.”
A crew isolated the leak, stopped the flow of gas, and repairs were made Sunday, she said.
State and local regulators and agencies, including L.A. City and L.A. County Fire, were contacted.
And officials from the South Coast Air Quality Management District and the state’s Division of Oil, Gas & Geothermal Resources also were at the site and investigated the leak, Bailey said.
“This was a very small leak and did not present a safety risk to SoCalGas employees or nearby communities,” she said.
Regulators confirmed the leak was stopped, said Division of Oil, Gas & Geothermal Resources spokesman Don Drysdale, in an email.
The state’s Department of Emergency Services also issued a hazardous materials spill notice on the leak.
SoCalGas did not notify residents or the media of the leak.
“The leak indication was minor,” Bailey said. “The minor nature of the release did not trigger any external notifications.”
A leak discovered in late October at well SS 25 — also at Aliso Canyon — took months to stop and resulted in the nation’s biggest release of the greenhouse gas methane.
The leak was finally stopped on Feb. 11. But not before it forced thousand of residents from their homes, and many complained of adverse health effects, including headaches and bloody noses.
The leak discovered over the weekend drew a quick response from a group of Porter Ranch residents and environmental activists, who renewed their demand for permanently closing the Aliso storage facility, which can hold 86 billion cubic feet of gas.
“SoCalGas continues to demonstrate that the Aliso Canyon storage facility is in disrepair and continues to pose a threat to our community and climate,” said Matt Pakucko, president of Save Porter Ranch, in a statement. “We need Gov. Brown to order the permanent closure of Aliso Canyon so that our families can return home without having to relive the trauma caused by the gas blowout from October. Nothing less than the permanent shutdown of Aliso Canyon will give our community the peace of mind it deserves.”
The environmental organization Food & Water Watch also issued a statement critical of the gas company.
“Since the gas blowout that caused over 15,000 people to be displaced from their homes was finally capped, residents have been exposed to ongoing releases of chemical odorants, and now, to more leaks from Aliso Canyon,” the statement said. “It’s clear that SoCalGas has lost control of their facility and is unable to prevent future disasters or pollution from affecting the nearby community and the planet,” Alexandra Nagy, the organization’s Southern California organizer, said in a statement.