Porter Ranch Gas Leak, State Sues Gas Company

© The Associated Press

California attorney general sues over gas leak near Los Angeles - California's attorney general filed a lawsuit against Southern California Gas Co on Tuesday over a huge methane gas leak that has forced thousands of Los Angeles residents from their homes since October.

The lawsuit accuses the utility, a division of San Diego-based Sempra Energy of violating state health and safety laws by failing to promptly control the gas release and report the leak to authorities.

The lawsuit also cites environmental damage caused by the spewing methane, the prime component of natural gas and a far more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide.

The leak stems from an underground pipeline rupture at the company's 3,600-acre (1,457-hectare) Aliso Canyon natural gas storage field. It marks the largest such leak ever in California and at its height accounted for a fourth of all methane emissions statewide.

The lawsuit, filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court, seeks unspecified civil penalties, and court orders requiring the utility to immediately take all steps necessary to mitigate the leak.

Several attempts to halt the methane release have failed, and the company is drilling relief wells to intersect the crippled pipeline to plug the leak, an effort that could take several more weeks.

The stench of odorized methane fumes has sickened scores of people and led to the temporary relocation of thousands of residents from the Porter Ranch community of northern Los Angeles at the edge of the crippled underground gas storage field.