Four top Democrats are asking the Government Accountability Office to investigate the methane leak in southern California and what it could mean for natural gas production across the country.
In a letter sent Friday to the GAO, the four top Democrats on the House Science, Space and Technology Committee — Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson of Texas, Rep. Alan Grayson of Florida, Rep. Suzanne Bonamici of Oregon and Rep. Donald Beyer of Virginia — want investigators to see what implications the Southern California Gas Co. leak in Los Angeles’ Aliso Canyon has for the rest of the country.
Specifically, the Democrats want the GAO to investigate what technologies could help identify natural gas leaks across the rest of the country, if there are certain public health monitoring practices that should be put in to monitor natural gas wells and if there’s any better way to do oversight.
“Properly addressing these issues now is critical to the save expansion of the natural gas infrastructure that has been underway for several years,” the letter states.
The well at Aliso Canyon started leaking in October and was stopped temporarily on Thursday. The Environmental Defense Fund estimated it poured 96,000 tons of methane into the atmosphere while it leaked.
Southern California Gas Co. is permanently sealing the well.
Environmental groups have said stronger regulations could have prevented the leak. The well was not required to have a safety valve that would have stopped the leak once it occurred, they note.
The company could have installed the safety valve in 1979, according to the letter, but it chose not to. The last time the well was inspected was in 1976, it said.
The amount of methane spilling from the well has caused more than 2,000 people to flee their homes in the Porter Ranch neighborhood of Aliso Canyon. Work is being done now to drill a fresh well to slow the leak, but that’s likely to take a few months.
Despite the leak being stopped, Democrats are concerned about whether it could be a sign of things to come.
The letter states that the U.S. has 400 underground natural gas storage facilities, 305,000 miles of natural gas transmission pipelines and 2 million miles of natural gas distribution pipelines.
The lawmakers want to make sure all those lines are safe for the future. According to the letter, they’re concerned about whether the federal government is properly monitoring pipelines.
“With both an aging and expanding pipeline infrastructure, it is important to ensure that pipeline operations are being properly monitored by the private sector and adequately overseen by state and federal regulators,” the letter states.
