LOS ANGELES _ State and local officials on Wednesday announced a tentative settlement in lawsuits filed against Southern California Gas Co. over the biggest methane leak in U.S. history.
The $119.5 million settlement with city, county and state officials and prosecutors will resolve agencies' claims against the gas company and fund government-administered environmental mitigation projects, according to the utility.
SoCal Gas said it also agreed to continue monitoring air quality along the fence line of the Aliso Canyon gas storage facility and hire an independent ombudsman to monitor and report on safety at the site.
In October 2015, a ruptured well at the facility near Porter Ranch began spewing gas and eventually became the nation's largest methane leak. It took nearly four months to seal the well.
Families who lived nearby complained of health issues, including nausea, headaches and nosebleeds. Thousands evacuated their homes as a safety precaution.
The leak has prompted litigation both by government agencies and residents who say they are still feeling the health effects from the incident.
The California attorney general sued, accusing the company of violating the state's health and safety laws by failing to promptly control the leak and alert authorities.
In 2016, SoCal Gas paid $4 million to settle a separate prosecution brought by the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office, which accused the gas company of failing to properly notify authorities about the leak.
As part of that settlement, SoCal Gas agreed to install eight infrared methane leak-detection systems along the southern border of the Aliso Canyon gas field. It said it would install real-time pressure monitors at each storage well and hire six full-time employees to monitor those detection systems.
Last year, the gas company agreed to an $8.5 million settlement with the South Coast Air Quality Management District over violations during the leak _ a deal that was criticized by Porter Ranch leaders and elected officials as hasty and insufficient. The settlement set aside $1 million for a health study, far less than the $5 million regulators had said was necessary for a meaningful analysis of how residents were affected by chemicals from the leak.
State air quality officials estimate the release of 109,000 metric tons of methane, a potent greenhouse gas, wiped out some of the pollution reductions from California's climate change programs. The state Air Resources Board is requiring the gas company to fund projects that offset the leak's damage to the climate _ a program that the utility said will be established through the settlement.
The gas company said Wednesday it agreed to pay $26.5 million to offset the damage from the release of planet-warming methane gas, which has many times the heat-trapping power as carbon dioxide. Under the mitigation program, the utility will provide loans to dairies to install methane digesters used to fuel heavy-duty trucks that otherwise would burn diesel, according to the state Air Resources Board.
Once the loans are paid back, the money will be directed to emissions-reduction projects in Southern California, including ones that benefit Porter Ranch residents.
A state appeals court judge last year ruled that Southern California Gas Co. could resume operations at the Aliso Canyon facility.
