Why
Engineers Can’t Stop Los Angeles' Enormous Methane Leak
26
December, 2015
One
of the biggest environmental disasters in US history is happening
right now, and you’ve probably never heard of it.
An
enormous amount of harmful methane gas is currently erupting from an
energy facility in Aliso Canyon, California, at a startling rate of
110,000 pounds per hour. The gas, which carries with it the stench of
rotting eggs, has led to the evacuation 1,700 homes so far. Many
residents have already filed lawsuits against the company that owns
the facility, the Southern California Gas Company.
Footage taken on December 17 shows a geyser of methane gas spewing from the Earth, visible by a specialized infrared camera operated by an Earthworks ITC-certified thermographer. The Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) released the footage last week, calling it “one of the biggest leaks we’ve ever seen reported” and “absolutely uncontained”
In
early December, the Southern California Gas Company said that
plugging the leak, which sprang in mid-October, would take at
least three more months.
Right now, the single leak accounts for a quarter of the state's
entire methane emissions, and the leak has been called the worst
environmental disaster since
the BP oil spill in 2010.
“Our
efforts to stop the flow of gas by pumping fluids directly down the
well have not yet been successful, so we have shifted our focus to
stopping the leak through a relief well,” Anne Silva, a
spokesperson for the Southern California Gas Company, told
Motherboard, adding that the company is still exploring other options
to stop the leak. “The relief well process is on schedule to be
completed by late February or late March.”
Part
of the problem in stopping the leak lies in the base of the well,
which sits 8,000 feet underground. Pumping fluids down into the will,
usually the normal recourse, just isn’t working, said Silva.
Workers have been ”unable to establish a stable enough column of
fluid to keep the force of gas coming up from the reservoir.” The
company is now constructing a relief well that will connect to the
leaking well, and hopefully provide a way to reduce pressure so the
leak can be plugged.
It’s
worth noting that the type of
gas involved in this leak is part of what makes it so
sinister. Methane,
the main component of natural gas, is 25 times more potent than
carbon dioxide when it comes to climate change impact. About
one-fourth of the anthropogenic global warming we’re experiencing
today is due to methane emissions, according to the Environmental
Defense Fund. Leaks like the current one in California, it turns out,
are a major contributor. In Pasadena, for instance, just miles from
the leak in Aliso, investigators found one
leak for every four miles:
Image: EDF
So
far, over 150 million pounds of methane have been released by the
leak, which connects to an enormous underground containment system.
Silva says that the cause of the leak is still unknown, but research
by EDF has
also revealed that more than 38 percent of the pipes in Southern
California Gas Company’s territory are more than 50 years old, and
16 percent are made of made from corrosion- and leak-prone materials.
Right
now, relief efforts have drilled only 3,800 feet down—less than
half of the way to the base of the well. At that rate, the torrent of
methane pouring into California won’t be stopped any time soon.
See also -
The affected well, known as SS 25, which is 8,750 feet deep.
ReplyDeleteIn the California permits it is known as well “Standard Sesnon” 25, API no. 037-00776 (“SS 25”)
The well is within T03N R16W of the Township and Range system.
The exact geographical coordinates are as follows.
Latitude: 34.315093°
Longitude: -118.564096°
It lies at a surface elevation of approximately 2,940 feet AMSL.
The well is also known as the following:
Aliso Canyon 776
API #: 03700776
Operator: Southern California Gas Company