Published in medium.com on August 10, 2019
What could happen to the Aliso Canyon gas storage wells if a major quake occurs? Why didn’t SoCalGas provide to the Los Angeles County Fire Department an up to date risk management plan? Why did the County Dept. of Public Health block toxicology testing for residents? Those were among the concerns brought up at the Joint Oversight Hearing with the Senate Natural Resources and Water Committee and the Joint Legislative Committee on Emergency Management on the Aliso Canyon disaster.
Before the hearing began at the Porter Ranch Community School, many residents, including current candidate for the CD-12 seat on the Los Angeles City Council, Loraine Lundquist, met outside for a rally. The main speaker was Dr. Jeffrey Nordella, who discussed his upcoming report which will be presented at the September 14th town hall at Temple Ahavat Shalom, starting at 1pm. For the past few years, he has been conducting a study into the many health issues that could be attributable to the Aliso blowout and aftermath.
Rally before the state hearing
His research team has found “disturbing facts” that he will be bringing to light at the town hall, including whether the community was exposed to crude oil, and if so, were residents appropriately warned; what other toxic chemicals were dumped upon this community and what was the effect on residents’ bodies; what fugitive emissions are currently still being disseminated into the air of the northern San Fernando Valley and whether that should be a concern; and the results of the complete blood count tests taken of residents. Currently he is still vetting and verifying the results.
He referred to the “perplexing” communications from the LA County Dept. of Public Health sent to physicians on January 22, 2016, and March 8, 2016, that advised that toxicology testing of residents not be conducted. He also mentioned that a registered nurse from this department came to his office during this time in an attempt to get him to follow these directives.
Also problematic was that he had been in talks with Quest Diagnostics in 2018 to get additional data for his study. But when he was asked if he was working with the Public Health Department, he was suddenly turned down by the lab. Another lab who had been involved with his research, Primex, suddenly stopped communicating with him around this time, too.
The proceeding itself, hosted by the Porter Ranch Neighborhood Council and the Los Angeles Unified School District, was divided into three segments. But before the first panel, Senator Stern, one of the presiding chairs along with Assembly Member Christy Smith, allowed several residents form the northern SFV, the area affected by the 2015 disaster, to provide public comment.
A basic theme among the comments was a mistrust of public agencies, especially of Public Health. Some also mentioned the negligence on the part of SoCalGas that was echoed in the Blade Energy Partners root cause analysis report.
One resident, Deirdre Bolona talked about when she and other residents had filed a public nuisance complaint with the AQMD after a major leak in December 2017. Some residents managed to get a screenshot of the 66.6ppm reading on one of the gas company’s monitors before it went offline. The inspector from the AQMD told Bolona that she had stopped at the SoCalGas office, asked about the spike, and was told “they turned the monitors off.” Bolona also mentioned that a SoCalGas chemical engineer admitted to stopping her monthly testing of benzene years ago after finding high levels of the carcinogen. She then showed the elected officials a photo of her father who passed away in July 2017 from a form of cancer associated with exposure to toxic chemicals, and indicated that his physician wouldn’t give him toxicology tests because of the March 8th directive sent by Dr. Rangan.
Both Deirdre and another resident Helen Attar looked toward Jarrod DeGonia, field deputy to Supervisor Kathryn Barger, and asked why his boss won’t meet with residents about the disaster.
Richard Mathews, who serves on the executive board of the California Democratic Party and is president of the local North Valley Democratic Club, brought up a term that would be used quite a bit during the hearing: lack of a safety culture at Aliso. He mentioned how SoCalGas didn’t have a plan in place to fight a massive fire that broke out on its site in 1974.
Nancy Hernandez talked about getting her son tested out of the state for the past few years. She turned to Rangan and said, “If you have any amount of decency, any compassion, please present your immediate resignation.”
I brought up the 1.5 million residents in the affected area. I then presented the state with several documents including my series on how public agencies have mishandled the disaster through incompetence, corruption and impotence; Public Health’s fact sheet issued on November 11, 2015 fact sheet, which incorrectly claimed it was mercaptans that were making people sick; the directive issued by Public Health on March 8th, 2016; and a press release by Public Health issued in October 2018, claiming they never said Aliso presented "no" public health hazards.
David Carey was asked to provide written info about uranium being deposited into the environment due to fracked gas.
After some residents spoke, the panels commenced, starting with the presentation about the root cause analysis. Ravi Krishnamurthy, of Blade Energy Partners, Wade Crowfoot of the California Resources Agency, and Jason Marshall, the deputy director of the California Dept. of Conservation presented information and then answered questions from Senator Stern.
First up was Wade Crowfoot, the Secretary of Natural Resources for the State of California. He discussed how Governor Gavin Newsom has committed to closing Aliso Canyon. He said the community members have delivered their message of anger and concern of health and safety. “You have been living this for 111 days. I was the point person working with the different agencies.” (At the time of the blowout, he had been the Jerry Brown’s Administration as deputy cabinet secretary and senior advisor. In January 2019, he was appointed to his current position to advise Governor Newsom on natural resources and environmental issues.)
He mentioned the fundamental dissatisfaction with the actions that have taken place after the blowout began, and mentioned the strong regulations that were put in place as a result of the disaster, but agreed it is not enough. He said the Governor has stated a priority to decarbonize the state and end the state’s dependence on fossil fuels. “We’re moving in that direction,” he added.
Then, Ravi Krishnamurthy of Blade Energy gave an overview of the root cause analysis his company performed on SS-25. The main report: https://sntr.senate.ca.gov/sites/sntr.senate.ca.gov/files/8_6_19_aliso_canyon_root_cause_analysis_summary.pdf
This report discussed the axial rupture due to microbial corrosion on the 7-inch casing of SS-25 as well as the unsuccessful top kills. He also talked about the lack of a safety culture by SoCalGas in its operations at Aliso. The Blade report noted that SoCalGas was reactive rather than proactive.
In 1988, an internal SoCalGas memo recommended an inspection of the outside of 20 wells to check the condition of each well casing. The wells were selected based on the amount of activity they saw. Each well was ranked and the pipe that burst in 2015 was ranked low, but despite all the previous leaks in the field there was no overall review done that would have led to detect corrosion as a potential problem.
Deputy Director of the California Dept. of Conservation Jason Marshall discussed a secondary investigation his department is undertaking, but didn’t have a quick answer as to the expected completion date. The department wants to ensure that a single point of failure doesn’t pose an immediate thread of loss of control fluids. He also mentioned that they want a risk management plan for all gas storage facilities in the state that includes threats and hazards including corrosion.
Senator Stern questioned Marshall on a need for an independent investigation given the recent cases of conflict of interest that have come to light at DOGGR (Division of Oil, Gas and Geothermal Resources) that led to the governor firing its head. Marshall assured him that the investigation team is operating independently of management and local districts. Those with any financial interest in energy concerns have been recused.
The second panel concerned the response to the RCA, with Briana Mordick of the Natural Resources Defense Council and Professor Matthew D’Alessio of Cal State Northridge.
Senator Stern noted that Bret Lane, the current CEO of SoCalGas had been asked to participate, but didn’t show up. Stern said, “You can rest assured this committee will be following up with Mr. Lane and Sempra.” He said his committee will be soliciting documents including ones pending in the class action and other lawsuits that would be important to be disclosed to the public. He added, “You can expect the letter to be forthcoming to the SCG, and media and public can provide input. Dairy digesters are not enough and I can tell you sending 25 million to a bunch of dairy digesters in the Central Valley does not make this right.”
Briana Mordick, senior scientist at the NRDC,called Aliso, “an environmentally and public health disaster.” She pointed out that it’s still ongoing, and pointed at the way the wells were designed and maintained as a cause for the blowout. She discussed the problems that were not addressed by the new regulations, including that those changes apply to only new wells and wells that were already built. She also added that one “can’t find problems you’re not looking for.”
Dr. D’Alessio gave a presentation on the draft seismic analysis that SoCalGas was ordered to commission. Here’s a link: ftp://ftp.consrv.ca.gov/pub/oil/Aliso/Seismic-Study/Summary-of-the-Draft-Aliso-Canyon-Gas-Storage-Field-Geologic-Seismologic-Geomechanical-Studies.pdf
The professor explained the Santa Susana fault system and explained that this report was to center on this key items: Where are the faults, how big an earthquake can be on these faults, what such a quake is going to do to the wells if they start leaking, how much can the wells leak, and once that gas start leaking into the rock, how much of it is going to reach the surface. The short answer to the conclusion: faults active faults cut across the wells, expect big earthquakes, wells leak when they rip apart, and some gas will remain trapped underground.
He pointed out that a magnitude 7.2 on the fault system can be expected, and if that occurs, the amount of intensity could be eight times the 1994 Northridge quake. When he gave the probabilities for many of the scenarios looked at, the worst case scenario was that 62 wells could fail and leak simultaneously. He pointed out that since the report came out, it may be worse given that more wells have been reactivated.
He did pointed out the rock structure in Aliso has successfully trapped gas for millions of years, but during a massive shaking, could go up the outside of the ruptured well or along the fault. He said the draft report uses pre-quake measurements of rock permeability, but quakes will loosen old fractures and create new ones. He had sent a letter regarding this possibility, and the reply sent two months ago stated that his comments “will be reviewed and considered.”
The final panel concerned emergency response. The two panelists were Dr. Cyrus Rangan of the County Dept. of Public Health and Fire Chief John Todd, of the LA County Fire Dept. Prevention Services Bureau.
Assembly member Christy Smith asked Dr. Rangan to give some background into the role of the Public Health Dept during and after the disaster.
After giving some information on how they were tasked with protecting the health during this unprecedented event, Rangan said that his department has “always took a stand that the facility shouldn’t have reopened” without the completion of the root cause analysis and seismic analysis. He added that since this information is now available, they still believe its operations should not have resumed there.
He said that his department started to receive health complaints right away. And as complaints mounted and expanded geographically, it was realized the affected area expanded beyond Porter Ranch. The county ordered SoCalGas to give relocation to anyone who wanted it. He noted that Public Health did not get cooperation from SoCalGas, and continued to be deceptive when repeatedly asked for critical data, including composition of well kill materials. He mentioned that the gas company didn’t begin chemical testing of the air until January 2016.
We don’t have the regulatory authority to get this info, he explained, as the regulatory authority comes from the state, but LA County is working to expand that authority through an assembly bill. This is Wendy Carrillo’s bill AB-1500, which will give the authority to obtain information regarding chemical exposure in addition to information regarding infection diseases. Currently it is due for a hearing by the Senate Appropriations Committee.
Assembly member Smith then said, “I understand based on data that was publicly available, the Public Health department took way too few actions that were woefully insufficient.” She brought up the high levels of benzene (“at seven times the reasonable and healthy level”) and the reports of oily residues on cars, homes, and yards without any warnings to don respirator masks.
She then read from the advisory sent to health providers on March 8, 2016, adding that she knew of one physician who lost his job after choosing to disregard the directive, and felt other physicians probably thought their hands were tied about ordering toxicology test for their patients. She questioned that data wasn’t collected because of the letter. “We know that SoCalGas was responsible, but we need to know about Public Health.”
Rangan said that Public Health wasn’t telling residents not to get these tests. But he said that Public Health “wanted to make sure they didn’t get misleading tests that would lead them away from the diagnosis.” He claimed that some people may get a diagnosis of an Aliso-related problem when it wasn’t.
Smith replied that “now we have an entire community of patients with nothing on the record to help them with their lawsuits.” She mentioned the UCLA survey that found VOCs in twenty locations that January, and that’s months of exposures that residents were exposed to during the blowout. She said that telling doctors to avoid performing toxicology tests got between the doctor and patient relationship, asking physicians not to give the best care.
When she asked about collecting a baseline data set, he said from the moment the blowout started, his department was collecting a symptom data log. He also said they don’t have the authority to perform the tests. And mentioned again that SoCalGas wasn’t providing the requested information regarding the composition of the drilling mud to kill the wells. Smith responded that in absence of that info, why limit the people from being able to get those kinds of tests that would inform their physicians.
Rangan gave the example of someone walking into a gas station, resulting in a spike in their benzene level, and then getting tested for benzene by their doctor.
Smith responded, “So if I told you I looked at some blood levels of benzene data of Porter Ranch people, you’ll tell me they all visited a gas station before that?”
Regarding the $25-million health study allocated by the 2018 Aliso Consent Decree, Smith mentioned that there’s been no health study in the years since the onset of the blowout. She asked who would be conducting the study. Rangan gave the status: that they are in the planning stage for the Scientific Oversight Committee which will develop the infrastructure and focus so they can put out RFPs seeking researchers. Smith questioned the lack of timeliness, especially data hadn’t been collected.
LA County Fire Chief John Todd discussed emergency response and prevention. He mentioned that the LA County and City fire departments did not think Aliso Canyon should be reopened. He mentioned the risk management plan they have been requesting of the gas company. He said that before October 10, 2015, they didn’t have a lot of knowledge and their experience has been with the brush fires. After the 2008 fire which started on SoCalGas property due to a downed power line, the fire department went to the CPUC to make sure power lines were under its purview. In addition, Todd gave his observation that calling it a leak was a misnomer.
Fires and earthquakes are a concern to him. As well as communication with the community. Smith suggested that the fire department meet with the community if something like this happens again.
After bringing up that the fire department’s rank and file was exposed as well to the chemicals, Senator Stern said that there will be a package put together as a result of this hearing. Getting better regulations. “The Gas Company may have problems with this. But this is not an exercise in politics, but an exercise in morality.”
The rest of the hearing consisted of giving residents additional time for public comment.
The president of the Porter Ranch Neighborhood Council Isaam Najm said that it’s a binary decision to be made. “Either yes, keep it open or no, close it.” He asked that we don’t play Russian Roulette with our children’s health and safety. SoCalGas has “lost the moral right to be our neighbor.”
Dr. Jeffrey Nordella, who has been conducting a health study for the past few years of residents, reported that his full report will be released at the September 14th town hall. He said that Rangan was absolutely not forthright, especially about the benzene exposure.
Walker Foley of Food & Water Action mentioned how his canvassers for Katie Hill last year all reported symptoms, such as a metallic taste and headaches. “The health issue is still ongoing and still a threat.”
Vikki Samela said the county public health failed the residents so many times. She talked about being forced out of her home to protect the health of her and her dog, and that her environmental doctor does not agree with Rangan. She mentioned how Public Health wouldn’t consider health complaints from before the blowout, even though the root cause analysis mentioned that there had been many leaks from the wells.
Kyoko Hibino mentioned that the residents kept being told that there were no long term health effects. “You said you heard us and if you heard us, you should close it down right now.”