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UC Davis Scientist First To Measure Methane Leak At Aliso Canyon

  •  Amy Quinton 
Monday, January 11, 2016 | Sacramento, CA
Joe Proudman / UC Davis

Pilot and UC Davis project scientist Stephen Conley looks at methane emission data from the Aliso Canyon Natural Gas Storage Facility leak on Friday, Jan. 8, 2016.

Joe Proudman / UC Davis

UC Davis scientist Stephen Conley has been flying his special pollution detection plane just downwind of the Aliso Canyon natural gas storage facility since early November. He says the amount of leaking methane, a potent greenhouse gas, is unlike anything he’s ever seen.

“If you imagine a United States Navy aircraft carrier and what that weighs, that’s about what’s coming out of this leak every month,” says Conley.

Conley has flown his plane all over the country measuring gas leaks.  He says when he flew downwind of the facility, he thought something was wrong with his equipment. It was the largest methane signal he’d ever seen.

 

 

Aliso canyon from plane

Aerial image of Aliso Canyon natural gas storage facility shot from UC Davis scientist Stephen Conley's airplane, which provided the estimates of methane emissions from an ongoing leak at the facility in the San Fernando Valley

 

“The only reason that we know anything about this leak is that the California Energy Commission happened to have a contract with us for pipeline flights that they were able to divert for this, otherwise no one would have ever known,” says Conley.

Conley estimates the leak has emitted about 80,000 tons of methane to date.

The uncontrolled leak has displaced thousands of homeowners in the Porter Ranch neighborhood in northern Los Angeles. 

Air regulators and Southern California Gas Company, which owns the facility, recently agreed to burn off some of the methane. California Senate leaders also plan to announce a bipartisan package of legislation to deal with the long-term health, safety and environmental issues raised by the leak.


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  • Michael Owen Baker / AP

    Massive Gas Leak Near Los Angeles Plugged After 16 Weeks

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    (AP) - A utility says it has stopped the leak from a ruptured well that gushed massive amounts of natural gas near Los Angeles for 16 weeks.
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    Boxer, Feinstein Seek Federal Review Of California Gas Leak

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    (AP) - U.S. Sens. Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein say they will seek federal review of an ongoing leak of natural gas from a utility's underground storage site that has forced thousands of people to leave nearby Los Angeles neighborhoods.
  • Dean Musgrove / Los Angeles Daily News via AP, Pool

    Measurements Show Aliso Canyon Methane Leak Stabilizing

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  • Joe Proudman / UC Davis

    Measuring The Aliso Canyon Methane Leak By Air

    Wednesday, January 20, 2016
    Stephen Conley will take new measurements of the Aliso Canyon methane leak site in his heavily-modified single-engine airplane Thursday afternoon and joins Insight ahead of the flight to explain the scale of his findings.
  • Michael Owen Baker / AP

    Gas Company Tries to Capture Methane in Latest Attempt to Plug Porter Ranch Leak

    Thursday, January 14, 2016
    For going on three months, natural gas has been pouring out of a faulty well in Los Angeles County's Aliso Canyon storage field, and it could take two more months to contain it. Everyone wants to stop the leak. But doing so is proving complicated.

 UC Davismethanegreenhouse gasesaliso canyon

Amy Quinton

Former Environment Reporter

Amy came to Sacramento from New Hampshire Public Radio (NHPR) where she was Environment Reporter. Amy has also reported for NPR member stations WFAE in Charlotte, WAMU in Washington D.C. and American Public Media's "Marketplace."  Read Full Bio 

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