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<\/a>Porter Ranch Estates sit at the foothills near the Aliso Canyon natural gas storage facility. SoCalGas is reporting that it found two new gas leaks at the facility on lines operated by Crimson Resource Management and has plugged one of them. (AP file photo by Michael Owen Baker)<\/p><\/div>\n
By ANTONIE BOESSENKOOL || Los Angeles Daily News<\/p>\n
Two new natural gas leaks have been reported at the Aliso Canyon field near Porter Ranch, one of which is still leaking more than a week after first being discovered. But this time it\u2019s not the Southern California Gas Co. storage facility that\u2019s the source, according to the company.<\/p>\n
Instead, SoCalGas workers found two separate leaks in equipment they say is operated by Denver-based energy company Crimson Resource Management.<\/p>\n
SoCalGas sent a notification to residents in the Aliso Canyon area saying that on May 24, a SoCalGas field employee discovered a \u201cminor\u201d gas leak from a threaded fitting on a 3-inch line operated by Crimson Resource Management.<\/p>\n
\u2022\u00a0RELATED STORY<\/strong>:\u00a0State regulators probing latest oil and gas leak at Aliso Canyon storage facility<\/a><\/p>\n In a Hazardous Materials Spill Report filed with the Governor\u2019s Office of Emergency Services, SoCalGas said it told Crimson about the leak, which Crimson said it would fix by May 30.<\/p>\n However, SoCalGas said in the report that its personnel saw on June 1 that Crimson hadn\u2019t fixed the leak. On that same day, SoCalGas said, its personnel found an open valve on a Crimson oil production line that also was releasing gas into the atmosphere.<\/p>\n SoCalGas closed and plugged that valve, stopping the gas release, the company said.<\/p>\n The first gas leak from the 3-inch line has not yet been repaired, state regulators said Friday.<\/p>\n The state Department of Conservation said Friday that Crimson is working to determine whether the \u201cminor leak,\u201d near Crimson\u2019s oil production operations, is part of the Crimson system.<\/p>\n \u201cThe minor leak at the Aliso Canyon field has been traced to a pipeline that is not associated with the natural gas storage facility,\u201d said Don Drysdale of the state Department of Conservation Public Affairs Office.<\/p>\n \u201cCrimson is shutting in three wells to determine if the line is part of their system,\u201d Drysdale said. \u201cRegardless, the elbow joint (identified as the location of the leak) will be welded tomorrow (Saturday) to remediate the minor leak. The Division of Oil, Gas, and Geothermal Resources will conduct a complete environmental inspection of Crimson\u2019s operation at Aliso Canyon after the immediate leak has stopped to identify any possible compliance issues.\u201d<\/p>\n A representative at Crimson Resource Management said the company would have more information later Friday. However, multiple calls to Crimson Friday afternoon and evening, both to its Bakersfield office and Denver headquarters, were not returned as of press time.<\/p>\n The Aliso Canyon field was the site of a massive gas leak starting in October 2015 that spewed more than 100,000 metric tons of methane into the air, sickening area residents and prompting the temporary relocation of 8,300 households and two schools.<\/p>\n \u2022\u00a0RELATED STORY<\/strong>:\u00a0100,000-ton Porter Ranch gas leak is largest in U.S. history, scientists say<\/a><\/p>\n Resident Issam Najm, who is also president of the Porter Ranch Neighborhood Council, said Friday that the most recent leak, reported to residents at midnight by SoCalGas, shows how \u201ccallous\u201d the oil producers at the Aliso Canyon field are.<\/p>\n \u201cThey say, \u2018Yeah, we\u2019ll fix it by the 30th,\u2019\u201d almost a week after SoCalGas said they discovered the Crimson leak, he said. \u201cThey\u2019re OK with it leaking. \u2026 They just don\u2019t care.\u201d<\/p>\n Najm said he and other residents have been advocating for the closure of the field altogether.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is just another example that this type of operation just does not belong in an urban environment,\u201d he said. \u201cYou just can\u2019t have this in people\u2019s backyard when there\u2019s really no controls \u2026 that have any effect.\u201d<\/p>\n Los Angeles City Councilman Mitchell Englander issued a statement about the leak Friday evening, saying the area\u2019s residents \u201care once again subject to an ongoing, unchecked leak with no accountability for those responsible.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cDespite all the safety measures put in place, it is clear that leaks like this are inevitable at large storage facilities like Aliso Canyon,\u201d Englander said. \u201cThat is why we need to both end our dependency on dangerous fuels and extend a moratorium on the use of the Aliso Canyon site.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2022\u00a0RELATED STORY<\/strong>:\u00a0Bill to keep injections at Aliso Canyon on hold falls short of needed votes \u2014 for now<\/a><\/p>\n Porter Ranch resident David Young said he was walking his dogs just after 12 a.m. Friday morning when he saw a fire truck at the gates to the Aliso Canyon field as well as two trucks labeled with the word \u201chazmat\u201d and several other vehicles.<\/p>\n Young said he has lived in Porter Ranch for 19 years, and if the facility isn\u2019t needed, he wouldn\u2019t object to its closure.<\/p>\n \u201cSouthern California Gas used to be a very good neighbor, but in recent times, even before the leak and especially since, their visual presence on the mountain has increase quite a bit. \u2026 (It was) nicer when you didn\u2019t have that.\u201d<\/p>\n Most recently, area residents have advocated for shutting down the Aliso Canyon field or limiting its use, while SoCalGas and\u00a0a U.S. Department of Energy official<\/a>\u00a0have pushed for returning the storage facility to full capacity. Also, the state Senate recently considered a bill that would block new natural gas injections into the Aliso Canyon storage facility until the cause of the 2015 leak is determined. That bill, introduced by state Sen. Henry Stern, D-Canoga Park, failed to get enough votes earlier this week to pass in the Senate. But it\u2019s expected the bill will be reconsidered in the coming days.<\/p>\n