Published in Medium.com on September 28, 2021
Residents show up for rally, photo by NBC
“Let’s put this in front of a jury let’s see all the information. That number 1.8 is going to look really small after we go to trial. A jury of our peers in this climate with what gas and oil is doing to this world, they are going to get what they deserve and we’re going to get something closer to what we deserve.” Porter Ranch resident and activist Craig Galanti on the settlement offer announced by SoCalGas and plaintiff lawyers in the gas blowout mass tort.
For the first time since a rally held on February 11, 2020, residents affected by the worst gas disaster in US history gathered on the southeast corner of Tampa and Rinaldi in Porter Ranch. They came to inform the many reporters in attendance about their objections concerning the offer, which was announced just 26 days before the 6th anniversary of the blowout.
The day before, attorneys representing some 36,000 plaintiffs announced in downtown LA that SoCalGas had agree to a $1.8-billion payout to settle the mass tort formed by combining several cases, with the earliest that were filed in late 2015.
What wasn’t mentioned by the lawyers is that the blowout victims were not informed about this development, a fact brought up by the residents taking the microphone in Porter Ranch.
One commonality among speakers at the second press conference/rally was the call for the Aliso Canyon gas storage facility to be permanently shut down. The residents wanted to remind Governor Gavin Newsom of his November 2019 call to expedite the close of the site by the California Public Utilities Commission. There were multiple calls for the governor, now that he survived the September recall effort, to sign an executive order to finally close the hazardous site.
“Governor Newsom looked at much of this community and told them he was going to shut down this facility. He lied,” Andrew Krowne, long-time resident of Porter Ranch, pointed out. He mentioned that the wells leak every day, as admitted by SoCalGas employees.
Also brought up by Krowne and by Jennifer Toth, is that the affected area extends beyond the community of Porter Ranch. According to Krowne, “Air knows no boundaries,” referring to how polytoxic emissions were blown throughout the San Fernando Valley. He brought up how the Valley and even the LA Basin was filled with smoke and ash from the northern California fires the other day.
Toth, a resident of Chatsworth, said the whole Valley was affected by the Blowout.
As for the SoCalGas claim that Aliso is needed for energy reliability, Save Porter Ranch co-founder Matt Pakucko said, “It’s already been proven so many times that it’s not needed for energy.”
photo by NBC
Several residents described how the blowout caused them long term health effects. Pakucko said, “The ongoing health issue is still happening. Ask anybody. The health issues are gigantic and people have died from cancer.” He added that many pets also lost their lives.
Fellow Save Porter Ranch co-founder, Kyoko Hibino talked about how she started having health problems right after she moved to Porter Ranch, and that her doctors couldn’t figure out why. After the blowout started, more problems occurred.
“I had nosebleeds, sometimes I had nosebleeds ten times a day. it was horrible, it was a nightmare.” Last year she was diagnosed with cancer, around the same time her cat was diagnosed. She has recovered but her cat passed away.
Maureen Capra also talked about her health ailments that have popped up since the blowout.
One thing that all the residents at the press conference agreed on, is that the $1.8-billion isn’t sufficient compensation for what they went through during and after the blowout. Some 8,000 families ended up having to relocate out of Porter Ranch and Chatsworth due to the many health symptoms, including daily nosebleeds, asthmatic attacks, and migraines, many were experiencing. Not just the hassle of living out of a suitcase for several months, but often SoCalGas played games with the relocation process, often forcing residents out of their hotel rooms with little notice or taking many months to reimburse for expenses. Pakucko, Krowne, and Galanti told reporters that calculating the average payout to plaintiffs, including taking out lawyer fees and expenses and taxes, would leave some with perhaps $20,000 or $25,000. As this is a mass tort, and not a class action suit, these payments will not be an equal share, but based on damages that will be determined by the court. The plaintiff lawyers had explained that if this settlement goes through, two retired judges will be looking at each case separately.
Photo by Deirdre Bolona
Galanti criticized the sudden announcement by the lawyers, saying that the community wasn’t queried,“So it was a deal cut in a board room or over some zoom meeting that really didn’t involve the community’s feelings, thoughts, concerns or their estimate of damages.” He added,“Now we’re going to see our plaintiff attorneys bargaining with us to try to come to a settlement that seems like a very slippery slope. What’s right and what’s truly just for the community. It’s potentially the path of least resistance for the attorneys. That’s a dangerous slope where justice won’t really prevail.”
Aliso Mom Alliance co-founder Helen Attai mentioned the six years of frustration for which the low settlement doesn’t begin to compensate for what residents spent on relocation expenses, for having to go to many doctor appointments. “How can you put a price on that?” She added, “Doesn’t it surprise you SoCalGas wants to settle now right before the court date?” She mentioned how SoCalGas got into trouble for refusing to turn over several documents as part of the discovery phrase. (The previous judge fined the gas company $525,610 for withholding 197,513 documents.)
Many of the speakers referenced the need for any settlement for the civil suit to include a substantial amount for medical monitoring and a long-term health study, just as was awarded in the BP Petroleum suit concerning the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.
Krowne and Galanti joined fellow member of the Aliso Canyon health study Community Advisory Group (CAG), Brian Allen, in starting the nonprofit Environmental Health Research to look into starting an independent patient-centric health study.
According to the EHR website, the nonprofit was created in response to what the community affected by Aliso wanted from a health study. In other words,“In order to best determine how the human body is affected by such toxins, the study must be patient-centric.” The three CAG members who formed EHR held a town hall to inform the community on the same day as the resident’s rally about the settlement. They explained they felt the needs of the community will not be met by the LA County Department of Public Health’s plans for the health study, as laid out in the goals and priorities issued by the department earlier this year.