LA methane leak is 2nd biggest in US history, most damaging to the environment

The site of the leaking well (top) relative to a nearby community. (credit: Stephen Conley)

In a paper released Thursday, a group of scientists published the results of 13 flyovers performed during the recent Aliso Canyon natural gas leak. They conclude that the well leak had effectively doubled the methane (CH₄) emission rate of the Los Angeles Basin.

The researchers, who hailed from Scientific Aviation, UC Davis, UC Irvine, CU Boulder, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, also concluded that the natural gas leak was the second-biggest failure of its kind in US history. The biggest happened in 2004 in Moss Bluff, Texas, when an underground natural gas storage facility collapsed.

Depressingly, the researchers suggested that the environmental impact from the Aliso Canyon leak would be much more damaging than the Moss Bluff collapse because "an explosion and subsequent fire during the Moss Bluff release combusted most of the leaked CH₄, immediately forming CO₂.” Carbon dioxide sticks around in the atmosphere longer than methane does, but methane is a far more potent greenhouse gas in the short-term.

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