Is the Aliso facility still a threat years after the massive gas leak?

By Madison Kerbeck, especially for CalMatters

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This is the 10th anniversary of the largest methane gas leak in United States history. Over four months in 2015 and 2016, the Aliso Canyon natural gas storage facility in Los Angeles County—California’s largest gas storage facility—released more than 100,000 tons of methane, drowning nearby communities in toxic fumes.

The leak caused severe headaches, uncontrollable nausea and bloody noses and 10,000 families displaced. some the health consequences were more harmfulincluding memory loss, slurred speech and impaired vision. The UCLA researchers also found that the gas leak led to term newborns born with low birth weightsome weighing 5.5 pounds or less.

I was 14, living four miles from the facility. I still remember the smell. Two good friends of mine suffered from terrible headaches and were displaced. They lived in a house provided to them for several months.

Following the incident, the facility was shut down in 2016 only to reopen in 2017. Was the facility safe to reopen or did Southern California Gas Co. could no longer bear the financial losses?

After the gas leak, revenue for SoCalGas’ parent company, Sempra Energy, fell 8.9% to $2.16 billion. The most state senator Henry Stern was able to secure from SoCalGas was a $71 million settlementwhich represents only 5% of Sempra’s 2016 profit.

The settlement will benefit 1.8 million inhabitants of neighboring communities where there are traces of methane were found. It is invested in green infrastructure for homes and schools to reduce natural gas use.

Why then should we keep this site open?

While working as a legislative intern for Stern in 2024 and attending a press conference outside SoCalGas headquarters in December, I saw firsthand that residents of affected communities do not see this as a victory. Members of the public want the facility to remain closed.

Residents still received electricity the year Aliso closed, proving the facility was not essential to the community and, more importantly, not worth the risk.

State officials say the facility can only be shut down once demand for natural gas is decliningbut California has already proven how quickly we can move away from fossil fuels.

California’s Clean Power Act of 2018 proposes to increase zero-carbon energy sources by 60% over 12 years. The objectives were met in just three years. With the right municipal mandates, the San Fernando Valley can reduce gas consumption while meeting its energy needs. from increasing renewable energy and setting mitigation requirements, we will not have to depend on Aliso Canyon.

Gov. Gavin Newsom promised during his first term to close the facility. A coalition of scientistsincluding PhDs from leading universities, wrote a joint letter in support of the closure.

In December 2024, however, Newsom ignored that advice and violated the trust the community voted him. He supported state officials’ decision to not only keep the facility open, but let’s expand it.

The need to stop is dire because the storage facility is located directly above the Santa Susanna fault line.

The facility failed during the 1994 Northridge earthquake, which had a magnitude of 6.7. Currently, the surroundings of Aliso Canyon have a 78% chance of experiencing a major earthquake over the next 50 years. Reopening and expanding a massive gas facility above the fault line is not just irresponsible, it’s reckless.

Society protested. Lawmakers pleaded. The scientists have spoken. Yet, 10 years later, Aliso Canyon still stands.

how long until the next blast? Until another earthquake? We can’t afford to wait any longer – not when lives are at stake.

Time to turn it off.

This article was originally published on CalMatters and is republished under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivatives license.