Almost four months after a massive natural gas leak was first reported in the Porter Ranch area on October 23, SoCal Gas officials announced today that the disaster is under control.
"We have temporarily controlled the natural gas flow from the leaking well and begun the process of sealing the well and permanently stopping the leak," said Jimmie Cho, SoCal Gas senior vice president of gas operations and system integrity, and SoCalGas incident commander in an official release.
The plug, as Cho said, is by no means permanent—the stoppage still needs to be approved by California state reguators and injected with cement.
The California Division of Oil, Gas and Geothermal Resources will begin winding down the relocation of nearly 6,000 families who were uprooted because of the leak. The cementing process could take a few days to complete.
The families who lived in the area around the Aliso Canyon facility in the San Fernando Valley, where the leak was fuming, reported health issues including nausea, nosebleeds and other symptoms.
The impact on the climate was the equivalent of driving 7 million cars per day, according to the Environmental Defense Fund. The group's ticker shows that between October 23 and February 11, the leak released 96,000 metric tons of methane, which is the equivalent of releasing 8 million metric tons of carbon dioxide, burning 900 million gallons of gasoline and wasting $15 million dollars worth of natural gas.
In January, Governor Jerry Brown declared the leak a state of emergency. He pledged a four-step mission statement to stop the leak; protect public health and safety; ensure accountability and strengthen oversight.
