Full Coverage: Porter Ranch-area gas leak

The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health ordered Southern California Gas Co. late Sunday to stop cleaning the homes of Porter Ranch-area residents affected by the gas leak at the company’s Aliso Canyon facility, concluding that the utility’s contractor was not properly trained or equipped to carry out the cleanup.

A Southern California Gas Co. executive Monday gave a slightly more optimistic view of the summer blackout potential for the Los Angeles area if the utility’s Aliso Canyon natural gas storage facility remains closed -- an issue that will come up before a Senate committee Tuesday.

Tougher gas storage rules inspired by California’s Aliso Canyon storage facility leak would be required under a bill approved unanimously by the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee on Wednesday.

If energy agencies and utilities ever want to scare consumers, they need say little more than “blackouts.�

Southern California Gas Co. says it intends to resume injecting natural gas in its shuttered Aliso Canyon storage field as soon as late summer, using a small number of high-production wells.

State officials warn that Southern California could face as many as 14 days of scheduled blackouts this summer because of depleted reserves of natural gas caused by the massive leak in Aliso Canyon.

Los Angeles County supervisors voted Tuesday to set up a strike team of fire, public health and planning officials to look at the safety of oil and gas fields in unincorporated county areas.

Leaks are common in California’s natural gas storage fields and are often left untreated for months, according to a survey taken after the massive leak in Aliso Canyon.

To offset greenhouse gas emissions from the massive Porter Ranch leak, Southern California Gas Co. could pay to plug abandoned wells, install methane-gobbling digesters at dairy farms and help people buy more efficient furnaces and water heaters, state regulators say.

In 2014, Southern California Gas Co. asked state officials for a rate hike to pay for an ambitious, “highly proactive� safety program to test all 229 of its active natural gas injection wells “before they result in unsafe conditions.�

Porter Ranch residents will have another week to return home as they transition out of temporary housing because of the gas leak in Aliso Canyon.

Southern California Gas Co. said Saturday that it has completed the cleaning of four public parks in Porter Ranch after residents complained about oily residue found on playground equipment.

Southern California Gas officials said Friday that they will hire a private contractor to conduct indoor air screening at a sampling of homes in the Porter Ranch area, near the recently plugged gas leak at Aliso Canyon.

Life seemed normal at the park in Porter Ranch on Tuesday, as women power walked the perimeter, parents pushed toddlers in swings, men counted off pull-ups on an exercise bar.

A park in Porter Ranch was closed Tuesday after city officials discovered playground equipment covered in an oily residue that likely came from a leaking well in Aliso Canyon.

Southern California Gas Co. will have to continue paying for temporary accommodations for Porter Ranch residents who do not believe it is safe to move home in the wake of the largest methane leak in U.S. history, an appeals court ruled Wednesday.

The capping of a massive gas leak this month brought relief to the Porter Ranch community.

Southern California Gas Co. is appealing a court order extending the period during which the utility must pay for temporary housing for people displaced by the four-month gas leak at its Aliso Canyon storage facility.

Southern California Gas Co. is starting enhanced leak detection and inspections of its troubled Aliso Canyon natural gas storage facility to help protect nearby communities, its chief executive said Friday.

A Los Angeles County Superior Court judge has ordered a 22-day extension of the time that Southern California Gas Co. will continue footing the bill for residents driven from their homes by the gas leak at its Aliso Canyon storage facility.

Scientists who flew an airplane equipped with sensors through the plume of natural gas leaking into the Porter Ranch area have found that at its peak, the nearly four-month leak released roughly 100,000 tons of methane — effectively doubling the methane emissions rate of the entire Los Angeles Basin.

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Southern California Gas Co. is pressing to defeat state legislation to require new testing of all wells at its closed Aliso Canyon gas storage field before operations can restart at the field.

State officials on Thursday announced that the leaking natural gas well in Porter Ranch that spewed plumes of methane and other compounds into the atmosphere has been sealed.

As crews inch toward a permanent seal of the Porter Ranch gas leak, Los Angeles County officials called Monday for a series of air-quality tests that will tell residents whether it’s safe to return home.

With a permanent seal for the Porter Ranch gas leak close, officials and residents are pushing for more safety precautions.

The effort to permanently seal the leaking gas well that fouled the air above Porter Ranch for 31/2 months reached a prosaic stage Saturday.

A dramatic time-lapse video shot by the California Air Resources Board shows the plume of gas from the damaged Aliso Canyon well disappear over seven minutes as crews gained control of the leak.

The smell was gone.

Nearly four months of environmental contamination and civic disruption in Porter Ranch came close to an end Thursday when work crews pierced the underground casing of the damaged Aliso Canyon gas well and started injecting it with a mud-like compound.

After Southern California Gas Co. announced Thursday that it had temporarily plugged a leaking well near Porter Ranch, relief washed over Michele Paull.

For months, thousands of residents of Porter Ranch have been forced from their homes amid a massive gas leak that many say made them sick.

Southern California Gas Co. announced Thursday that it has temporarily controlled the flow of gas from a well near Porter Ranch, a crucial first step in the effort to stop the leak that has forced thousands to flee their homes.

An emergency relief well is expected to intersect Southern California Gas Co.’

A relief well is within 20 feet of reaching the leaking Southern California Gas Co. well in Aliso Canyon that released tons of methane into the air and led to the dislocation of thousands of residents, regulatory and company officials said Monday.

Responding to complaints that customers would be rushed back to their homes after a gas leak in Aliso Canyon is repaired, Southern California Gas Co. said Monday it will give customers at least a week to return from their temporary housing.

A state official said Thursday that under the most favorable circumstances, the damaged well that has spewed environmentally damaging natural gas from a storage facility near Porter Ranch could be capped as early as the end of next week.

A Los Angeles County supervisor wants residents who have been displaced by the Aliso Canyon gas leak to have as long as 30 days after the leak is plugged to return to their homes from temporary housing.

The natural gas leak in Aliso Canyon continues to reverberate in Sacramento, where air pollution officials are proposing new rules to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from oil and gas facilities.

Southern California Gas Co. on Tuesday was charged with failing to immediately notify state authorities about the natural gas leak in Aliso Canyon.

Roberta Cohen seems like the first person who should have left her Porter Ranch neighborhood to avoid the natural gas leak.

The state Senate voted unanimously Thursday to order Southern California Gas Co. to stop using its wells at Aliso Canyon until they have been determined to be safe.

U.S. Sens.

Two Los Angeles communities. Two environmental nightmares. Two very different responses from Gov.

One resident reported getting bloody noses for the first time in 40 years.

Southern California Gas Co. is providing air purifiers to schools within a 5-mile radius of its leaking natural gas storage well in Aliso Canyon, officials said Wednesday.

The California Public Utilities Commission is studying the effects of permanently shutting down the Aliso Canyon natural gas field near Porter Ranch, an indication the agency is uncertain about the future integrity of the storage system that supplies 11 million customers in Southern California.

The government agency that regulates Southern California’s air quality sued Southern California Gas Co. on Tuesday, accusing the company of negligence in a massive gas well leak that has forced thousands to leave their homes.

Stephen Conley has flown pollution-detecting airplanes over some of the largest oil and gas fields in the nation.

While the Southern California Gas Co. continues its work on a relief well that will, hopefully, stop the three-month-long gas leak near Porter Ranch, lawmakers are beginning on the next essential step: developing regulations to reduce the risk of another massive leak from an underground natural gas storage facility that will once again sicken people and wreak havoc on the environment.

Regulators on Saturday approved a comprehensive abatement order that requires Southern California Gas Co. to take immediate steps to contain a massive natural gas leak in Porter Ranch, permanently shut down the damaged well, establish a leak detection system and conduct an independent health study.

The Los Angeles city attorney has forced the Southern California Gas Co. to back down from a plan the utility quietly put in place this week to stop offering rental houses to Porter Ranch families dislocated by the nearby gas leak.

Reem Naaman cried as she broke the news to the operators of a Porter Ranch preschool that has been a second home to her children.

Movie-famous activist Erin Brockovich stood in front of 400 Porter Ranch residents on a recent weeknight and told a disturbing personal story.

Southern California Gas Co. said Monday that it has abandoned a plan to capture and burn the leaking natural gas that has forced thousands of Porter Ranch residents to relocate, citing safety concerns.

When Bryan Caforio addressed disgruntled Porter Ranch residents packed into the West Hills Presbyterian Church for a meeting about the natural gas leak that has sickened and displaced thousands in the area, he cut straight to the chase.

As she visited her American quarter horse at stables just east of Porter Ranch, Debra Zavatto came across a frightening sight: blood coming out of the animal’s nose.

The possibility of a catastrophic explosion prompted state regulators Saturday to delay plans to capture and burn leaking natural gas that has sickened and displaced thousands of residents of Porter Ranch Mohsen Nazemi, deputy executive officer of the South Coast Air Quality Management District, whose hearing board was expected to approve the plan at a public meeting in Granada Hills, acknowledged the proposal was “very unusual� and that the idea is now on hold until local fire officials and state and federal regulators, have signed off on it.

California utility regulators have asked Southern California Gas Co. to show that the ground around its leaking well is stable and that attempts to burn off escaping natural gas won’t lead to an explosion.

Southern California Gas Co.’

The first study of the health risks posed by emissions of benzene from a massive natural gas leak near Porter Ranch has found that cancer risk from the toxic air pollutant is similar to levels found throughout the Los Angeles Basin.

Hundreds of San Fernando Valley residents crowded into a high school gymnasium Saturday to express outrage over a gas leak that has sickened and displaced thousands from the Porter Ranch area.

The school district’s cost for dealing with a gas leak in Aliso Canyon has surpassed $5 million, according to officials with Los Angeles Unified, which has relocated two campuses.

Over winter break, the Los Angeles Unified School District spent three weeks setting up two new campuses for schools in Porter Ranch in the San Fernando Valley after the school board decided to relocate the students of Castlebay Lane Charter Elementary and Porter Ranch Community School in December.

Air quality regulators and Southern California Gas Co. have agreed on a plan to capture and incinerate at least some natural gas from a leaking well that has sickened and displaced thousands of residents of Porter Ranch, according to a legal document filed this week.

The front of Northridge Middle School was quiet Thursday morning — the asphalt was still wet with rain, and there was no one in front of the main auditorium or school entrance, a beige building with green accents.

Two weeks after the Los Angeles city attorney’s office won a court order requiring Southern California Gas Co. to find temporary housing within 72 hours for Porter Ranch families seeking to escape leaking fumes, the pace of relocation has not improved.

With ailing residents, displaced neighborhoods and a potential decline in property values, the leak at Southern California Gas Co.’

It took a while, but Gov.

Gov.

Gov.

Los Angeles County supervisors called on the state Tuesday to set up a new regulatory structure to oversee natural gas storage facilities like the one in Aliso Canyon that has been leaking for the past two months.

Southern California Gas Co. crews are erecting mesh screens around the utility’s leaking natural gas injection well to prevent an oily mist from drifting off the site and across the nearby community of Porter Ranch, company officials confirmed on Monday.

A leaking natural gas well that has displaced thousands of residents in Porter Ranch lacked a working safety valve, sparking new questions about how the facility was maintained.

A Porter Ranch resident describes her family’s experience as they relocate from their home during the holidays.

Not long after plans were laid for the community of Porter Ranch half a century ago, an oil and gas well caught fire less than five miles away.

The director of a commission that oversees Los Angeles city annexations said the agency plans to consider a moratorium on any expansion of boundaries for new housing developments around Porter Ranch.

A member of the state Assembly from Southern California plans to hold a hearing in January on Southern California Gas Co.’s response to a gas leak in Aliso Canyon that has forced the evacuation of thousands of Porter Ranch residents.

Porter Ranch residents cope with a gas leak that has dragged on for more than 40 days.

Southern California Gas Co. officials said Sunday they have pinpointed the location of a leaking natural gas injection well that has displaced thousands of residents in the upscale San Fernando Valley community of Porter Ranch.

Signs of Christmas along Danielle Rabadi’s eerily quiet street have made her wistful for noel parties she has enjoyed in the Porter Ranch neighborhood, with families and neighbors sharing dinner tables and gifts.

Southern California Gas Co., under pressure from Los Angeles, agreed Wednesday to speed up and broaden its relocation program for residents suffering ailments from a massive natural gas leak in the hills above Porter Ranch.

An ongoing natural gas leak near Porter Ranch prompts some parents to call for area schools to be relocated.

The Los Angeles city attorney’s office sought a court order Tuesday to move Porter Ranch residents into temporary housing more quickly to avoid fumes from a massive natural gas leak.

Porter Ranch residents suffering from headaches, nausea and other symptoms from a natural gas leak that has displaced thousands are assigning blame to a damaged well in the Santa Susana Mountains north of Los Angeles.

As the natural gas leak in Aliso Canyon continues into its 10th week, its deleterious effects keep growing.

They came prepared for war, more than 1,500 concerned residents of an upscale San Fernando Valley neighborhood and a battery of seasoned lawyers who gathered in a church hall to discuss their response to a massive natural gas leak less than two miles away.

Los Angeles school district officials on Thursday authorized their legal staff to sue Southern California Gas Co. if necessary to recoup substantial costs piling up as a result of a leak in a natural gas storage well in Aliso Canyon.

More than 1,500 people gathered in a Porter Ranch church auditorium Thursday evening, where medical experts addressed the possible health effects of a leaking natural gas storage facility and lawyers handed out applications for representation.

Los Angeles Unified School District officials were preparing Wednesday to close two elementary schools affected by a natural gas leak in Porter Ranch as many parents expressed rising fears over their children’s health.

Los Angeles County supervisors on Tuesday proclaimed a state of local emergency over a gas leak at a storage facility in Aliso Canyon that has sickened residents of nearby Porter Ranch.

Los Angeles school district officials are developing a plan to relocate students at two elementary schools affected by a nearby natural gas leak, The Times has learned.

California regulators are taking precautions so that crews do not ignite leaking methane gas as they work to plug a defective well north of Los Angeles, the state’s oil and gas supervisor said Tuesday.

The Los Angeles City Council is urging Southern California Gas Co. to step up its assistance to Porter Ranch families displaced by the gas leak at its Aliso Canyon facility by paying for healthcare, added transportation costs and private security for their vacant homes, among other costs.