MY COMMENTARY: From this article you will see all they are worried about is the money...how much it will cost to clean it up. Not one word mentioned about the emergency alert of which I have posted. This can kill hundreds of thousands of people if it blows, yet they speak of money here!!! Perhaps that is why LA installed those air detection devices, to keep track of the methane in the air. They are saying it's for biological terrorism, but I had a feeling at the start it was really for the benzene or the methane but they didn't want to scare the people so said differently. Just my thoughts.
Southern California Gas Co. customers won’t have to pay to fix the massive, still-uncontrolled methane gas leak in Porter Ranch, or pay to mitigate its environmental impact, according to the utility’s CEO.
But with public pressure mounting and policymakers pushing for new regulations, ratepayers, no matter where they live, likely will be tapped to cover the cost of upgrades that might be ordered for the largest natural gas storage facility in the state, as well as for the rest of the system.
It’s not inappropriate for customers to pay costs associated with overdue improvements that ensure the system is safe and well-maintained, so long as customers don’t wind up covering for SoCalGas’ failures.
Although nobody yet knows the exact reason for the leak at the Aliso Canyon Natural Gas Storage Facility, the conditions that set the stage for what is now considered the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in California — aging infrastructure and near-absent regulation on storage facilities — are becoming more clear.
There have been no annual inspections of the site, and federal safety standards for underground gas-storage facilities do not exist.
SoCalGas officials say the company met all requirements for operating the Aliso Canyon facility, including when it did not replace a subsurface safety valve used prior to 1979, though it knew the pace of corrosion and failure of pipes at the storage facility was worsening.
The company said so in a 2014 filing asking the California Public Utilities Commission to approve a rate hike to pay for an aggressive self-policing inspection regime at four storage facilities, including Aliso Canyon and Playa del Rey.
To SoCalGas’ credit, the proposal, which is still pending, calls for well pressure tests, cameras to visually inspect the integrity of equipment, and the installation of blowout protection devices.
But it was never implemented, as the company dutiful waited for ineffective regulators to respond.
In hindsight, it’s clear just how irresponsible that was. You don’t have to be an engineer to conclude that all those elements should already have been in place.
Leaving publicly traded utility companies to police themselves and hope for the best is bad policy. Many in the natural gas industry — not exactly friendly to regulation — recognize this.
The industry has supported setting federal safety standards on the hundreds of storage facilities across the country. Congressman Brad Sherman, who lives in Porter Ranch, has asked President Obama to use his authority to force the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration to impose them.
It’s a shame it has taken a catastrophe to make the regulation discussion a priority.
Porter Ranch residents already are paying — many with physical symptoms, and inconvenience — for lax oversight and what amounts to corporate ambivalence. Schools have been uprooted and families unsettled. Doctors are trying to figure out if there will be long-term health impacts, and the lawsuits against SoCalGas are piling up. Who knows how high the financial and other costs will go before this all is resolved.
These are consequences that might have been avoided, but ignoring underground storage facilities was too easy, for too long. Not anymore.
( Source )