Environmental Defense Fund / The New York Times
Six years ago in a natural gas well located in the hills above the San Fernando valley area of Porter Ranch failed, filling the air with methane. An agreement was announced on Monday that Southern California Gas Co. will pay up to $1.8 billion to settle after years of lawsuits.
SoCalGas has made a statement that this settlement is to resolve “substantially all material civil litigation” that has been placed against them. This would also include an after-tax charge of nearly $1.1 billion within this month. While this may have ended the legal battle for the company, many residents say the settlement came with no ease of long-term fears over exposure to toxic chemicals.
Residents have also raised the question whether or not their community will be safe after the exposure to the toxic chemicals. 100,000 tons of methane, ethane and other chemicals populated the atmosphere over the Porter Ranch area for 112 days forcing 8,000 families to flee their homes. When the gas leak had finally been contained, it had become the largest Methane leak in US history.
The attorneys that representing the plaintiff mentioned Monday at the Los Angeles Federal Courthouse that the settlement reflected just compensation for the injuries caused by the methane leak. Many of the effected residents were able to give depositions via zoom expressing that they want the storage field shut down, as it remains active to this day.
In some cases, residents reported heart palpitations, cancer and other ongoing health problems they believe have been caused by being exposed to these toxic chemicals. Residents also keep reporting and claiming that they smell leaks coming from the facility even still. The company has since then been required to conduct a $25 million study to determine the long term and short-term effects of the people located withing the effected area.