Giant Methane Leak in California Won't Be Capped For Months

Motherboard takes a look at the ongoing leak from a deep well in Southern California, and the engineering challenges that mean it won't be stopped for a while. From Motherboard's report: An enormous amount of harmful methane gas is currently erupting from an energy facility in Aliso Canyon, California, at a startling rate of 110,000 pounds per hour. The gas, which carries with it the stench of rotting eggs, has led to the evacuation 1,700 homes so far. Many residents have already filed lawsuits against the company that owns the facility, the Southern California Gas Company. ... Part of the problem in stopping the leak lies in the base of the well, which sits 8,000 feet underground. Pumping fluids down into the will, usually the normal recourse, just isn't working, said [copmany spokesperson Anne] Silva. Workers have been "unable to establish a stable enough column of fluid to keep the force of gas coming up from the reservoir." The company is now constructing a relief well that will connect to the leaking well, and hopefully provide a way to reduce pressure so the leak can be plugged. As the article notes, methane is an especially noxious gas in a figurative as well as literal sense; while it spends less time in the atmosphere than does CO2, it is more effective at trapping heat.

Comments

Rotting eggs?

[Deadstick]

That would be hydrogen sulfide. Methane doesn't smell like anything. It's odorless; in fact your gas company puts a stinky compound into it so you'll know when there's a leak.

Re:Rotting eggs?

[Deadstick]

The dopant in city gas isn't H2S; it's usually methyl mercaptan. My HS Chem teacher said it's considered the worst smelling substance known, and distinctly (distinkly?) different from H2S (which could masquerade as flatulence).

Re:Rotting eggs?

[pepsikid]

You misunderstand. This is not a production well, it is a storage well. This is natural gas which has already been pumped topside, treated with scent, and has been forced back underground into an expired oil well. It's a super-cheap way to store fuel, but in the minds of those who are not legally immunized from disasters like this one, extremely risky. When storage wells like this crack open, there's almost nothing that can be done, and no ability to do anything quickly in any case.

Re:Rotting eggs?

[silas_moeckel]

It's a storage well so it's processed NG with it's standard marking impurity already added.

more to it

[Goldsmith]

This article is pretty light on details. I know some of the residents in that area, and these are things some retired engineers have passed on to me from community meetings SCGC has had with them.

This is an old (early 20th century) oil field with over 80 wells. If you've never driven around LA, you may not know that there are still operational oil fields inside the city, but think of the La Brea tar pits, and it makes sense.

All of the wells in this field were designed to pump out oil. The pipes used in the wells are larger inner diameter than typically used with methane and have thinner and more porous wall material than typically used with methane. The pipes used are perfectly fine for oil, but would not be approved for a new methane well.

SCGC uses this underground cavern emptied of oil as storage for methane for Los Angeles in lieu of constructed tanks. They can and do pump methane in and out, it's all processed and comes from somewhere else.

What they did not do is verify that this old oil field will actually hold methane before they started using it. This leak looks like the methane is going through the porous concrete pipe that makes up the well and through the surrounding rock to the surface. This is why they can't seal the leak by clogging the pipe. It seems unlikely that anything short of capping all of the wells at the bottom or pumping out the methane will stop the leaking for good. They're halfway through drilling for one well, and don't intend to start on others until they show signs of leaking. All of their sensors are at ground level, so they will have no advance notice of an imminent leak.

The local schools have been closed due to air quality issues, and a few thousand people have been temporarily moved at SCGC's expense. This leak accounts for 25% of the total expected statewide carbon emissions.

Re:Where is the FEMA money or similar?

[Firethorn]

Why isn't there a serious response on the federal level instead of expecting the company to do whatever they can with their own resources? A spill in the gulf was dealt with on such a level.

Actually, the spill in the gulf was mostly dealt with on a company level, with the feds breathing down their neck going 'fix it now!' That involved subcontracting, which is the same sort of deal we're seeing here.

For that matter, the gulf spill involved the same sort of response - they had to drill a relief well to take pressure off the original in order to fix a leak.

Which brings up the question: How do you propose that the feds increase the speed of drilling the relief well? Think of it like drilling into a safe. It's going to take a while, and having a dozen guys 'assisting' isn't going to make it go any faster.