California state officials on Wednesday cleared the way for resumption of natural gas pumping into an underground storage facility where a blowout spewed methane for nearly four months, sickening Los Angeles residents and driving thousands of families from their homes.
State engineering and safety enforcement experts concluded the Aliso Canyon facility "is safe to operate and can reopen at a greatly reduced capacity in order to protect public safety and prevent an energy shortage in Southern California," according to a joint statement from the Division of Oil, Gas and Geothermal Resources and the California Public Utilities Commission.
However, the vast field will be restricted to about 28 percent of its capacity. The decision follows repairs that the Southern California Gas Co. had to make to meet stricter new regulations put in place after the leak crippled Aliso Canyon, which is the biggest natural storage facility west of the Mississippi River.
RELATED: Utilities Commission Approves Aliso Canyon Investigation
The October 2015 blowout led to the largest-known release of methane in the U.S. and widespread complaints of nosebleeds, nausea, headaches and other symptoms that persisted even after the leak was capped a year ago.
Angry residents and several advocacy groups want the facility nestled in the mountains above the San Fernando Valley permanently shuttered. They had asked the state not allow a re-start until a pending investigation finds the leak's cause.
Alexandra Nagy of Food and Water Watch, a group calling for the facility to be shut down for good, said she was surprised by the decision to reopen. "I think it's absolutely ludicrous that they're claiming this facility is safe," she said. "From my perspective this facility will never be safe."
She said her group is looking at their options to challenge the reopening. "This is Gov. Jerry Brown's administration selling out Los Angeles communities for SoCal gas profits," she said.
The blowout occurred in a well over 60 years old. It was one of 115 wells at a vacant oil field that was converted in the 1970s to store gas a mile-and-a-half underground where crude had been removed.
About a third of the wells have passed a rigorous battery of tests prescribed by the state to inject or withdraw more gas in the mostly empty field. The remaining wells have been taken out of service and must pass state-mandated tests within a year or be permanently sealed.
The company and energy regulators said the field was critical to provide home heating and powering gas-fired electricity plants in the area during energy spikes, though predictions of more than a dozen blackouts last summer never occurred.
The blowout had cost SoCalGas more than $760 million with most of that going to relocate 8,000 families and paying their expenses for several months. The company expects to recoup most of that from insurance.
Costs have also included a $4 million settlement with Los Angeles County prosecutors after the company pleaded no contest to a criminal charge for failing to quickly report the blowout. It also agreed to pay local air pollution regulators $8.5 million to settle a lawsuit, which includes $1 million for a study of health effects.
The company still faces more than 200 lawsuits and could still be fined from several regulatory agencies.
